G
Guest
Batch #12 and it's 100% goat!
Okay, that isn't burned, is it?
The picture is a sample bar of my GM soap I made yesterday. Unfortunately I left my kitchen just before the pour to check that there was room for the mold in my junk room, and when I returned no more than 60 seconds later the batch had already started to seize. Evidently the FO (WSP ocean rain) had accelerated the trace but didn't actually show it until just after I left. I hastily poured the batter into the mold and thought I would be okay. It still looked okay when I unmolded it but when I started to cut it I noticed that the slices were bleeding oil. Further investigation revealed that the ooze was FO, so it appears that my FO hadn't been fully incorporated when it started to seize. I've rebatched it in my crock pot and it appears to be going well but I won't know until I unmold and cut it again. (It's in the fridge right now.)
Here's how I did it:
I normally mix my lye to 30% concentration. In my GM batch this came out to 16 oz water and 7 oz lye. I poured 8 oz fresh GM into a measuring cup. To this I added 1 oz of GM powder, then hit it with my SB until all the lumps had disappeared. Note that you can mix GM powder with water in a 1:8 ratio by weight to reconstitute GM from GMP. That means that the 8 oz milk is now double strength GM.
Measure the other 8 oz water into your lye mixing container and add only half of your lye and keep stirring until the cloudiness disappears and the mixture becomes clear. Warning: Do not add the full amount of lye at this time or you will have constructed a lye bomb, not a good thing to have in your kitchen!!! When the lye mixture has cooled to room temperature start adding lye a bit at a time while continuously stirring, and stop adding it anytime you see powder remaining in the liquid. Slowly continue until you have incorporated all the lye into the lye-water mixture.
Be very careful with your lye mixture because it is double-strength and extremely strong, probably stronger than any experienced soaper would want to work with, but you know that fools rush in where wise men fear to tread. I wasn't even sure you could make a 60% lye mixture without it precipitating, but I discovered that you can.
Let your lye mixture cool to your desired temperature and adjust your fats to the same temperature. Place your concentrated GM near your soaping pot, then very carefully but quickly add the lye mixture to the fats while continuously stirring with a spoon, then immediately add the concentrated GM too, and then as quickly as possible hit it with your SB until the batch is completely homogenized.
I noticed only the slightest mixing problem that disappeared within 10 seconds of hitting it with my stick. The hugely concentrated lye mixture seemed to work fine and I had absolutely no problem completing the blending to trace although my FO greatly accelerated my batch and I had to work quickly getting it into the mold. When it came out of the mold I was surprised by the light apricot color which I partially attribute to base oils (OO is the biggest component) and to the FO. Never once did I smell any ammonia, and the light color indicates that I didn't burn the milk. In fact at least half the color darkening occurred during gel, and although I don't like no-gel soap you no-gellers could probably get a lighter color if you pop your goat into the fridge right after molding.
So there's how I got my 100% goat with no burning and no ammonia. I wouldn't be so brash as to tell anybody to make their GM soap my way but it worked perfectly for me the first time out, and I'm going to make it this way every time! 8)
I'll post pics of the rebatched bars if they look okay. Got goat?
Okay, that isn't burned, is it?
The picture is a sample bar of my GM soap I made yesterday. Unfortunately I left my kitchen just before the pour to check that there was room for the mold in my junk room, and when I returned no more than 60 seconds later the batch had already started to seize. Evidently the FO (WSP ocean rain) had accelerated the trace but didn't actually show it until just after I left. I hastily poured the batter into the mold and thought I would be okay. It still looked okay when I unmolded it but when I started to cut it I noticed that the slices were bleeding oil. Further investigation revealed that the ooze was FO, so it appears that my FO hadn't been fully incorporated when it started to seize. I've rebatched it in my crock pot and it appears to be going well but I won't know until I unmold and cut it again. (It's in the fridge right now.)
Here's how I did it:
I normally mix my lye to 30% concentration. In my GM batch this came out to 16 oz water and 7 oz lye. I poured 8 oz fresh GM into a measuring cup. To this I added 1 oz of GM powder, then hit it with my SB until all the lumps had disappeared. Note that you can mix GM powder with water in a 1:8 ratio by weight to reconstitute GM from GMP. That means that the 8 oz milk is now double strength GM.
Measure the other 8 oz water into your lye mixing container and add only half of your lye and keep stirring until the cloudiness disappears and the mixture becomes clear. Warning: Do not add the full amount of lye at this time or you will have constructed a lye bomb, not a good thing to have in your kitchen!!! When the lye mixture has cooled to room temperature start adding lye a bit at a time while continuously stirring, and stop adding it anytime you see powder remaining in the liquid. Slowly continue until you have incorporated all the lye into the lye-water mixture.
Be very careful with your lye mixture because it is double-strength and extremely strong, probably stronger than any experienced soaper would want to work with, but you know that fools rush in where wise men fear to tread.
I wasn't even sure you could make a 60% lye mixture without it precipitating, but I discovered that you can.Let your lye mixture cool to your desired temperature and adjust your fats to the same temperature. Place your concentrated GM near your soaping pot, then very carefully but quickly add the lye mixture to the fats while continuously stirring with a spoon, then immediately add the concentrated GM too, and then as quickly as possible hit it with your SB until the batch is completely homogenized.
I noticed only the slightest mixing problem that disappeared within 10 seconds of hitting it with my stick. The hugely concentrated lye mixture seemed to work fine and I had absolutely no problem completing the blending to trace although my FO greatly accelerated my batch and I had to work quickly getting it into the mold. When it came out of the mold I was surprised by the light apricot color which I partially attribute to base oils (OO is the biggest component) and to the FO. Never once did I smell any ammonia, and the light color indicates that I didn't burn the milk. In fact at least half the color darkening occurred during gel, and although I don't like no-gel soap you no-gellers could probably get a lighter color if you pop your goat into the fridge right after molding.
So there's how I got my 100% goat with no burning and no ammonia. I wouldn't be so brash as to tell anybody to make their GM soap my way but it worked perfectly for me the first time out, and I'm going to make it this way every time! 8)
I'll post pics of the rebatched bars if they look okay. Got goat?
