I’m starting this thread to keep track of my attempt to make gallseife (cow bile soap in German), and hopefully get feedback and advice along the way!
Gallseife is a traditional soap used for stain removal that is commercially available here in Switzerland but little known otherwise. It’s very popular among people who like to stick with “natural” ingredients although obviously it’s not vegetarian. It can make people a little squeamish, but until beef consumption goes out of fashion, I personally would rather use every bit of the cows we sacrifice. I’ve used the commercial soaps for 15 years, and it is amazingly good at removing stains, without being irritating to handle.
Needless to say, companies don’t share how they make it, and I haven’t been able to find a modern recipe online. The closest was this PDF of 100 year old recipes but the ratio of lye to oils was absurd, which makes me think that either they just cleaned with extremely high pH in the past, or their lye was substantially less pure than it is today.
So I’m trying to re-invent the recipe the hard way: trial and error.
Finding ox gall was easier than I expected; it’s an ingredient used in painting and art restoration, so I got a liter online from the brand Schmincke. The only safety indication is that it will cause eye-irritation if it gets in your eyes and can cause an allergic reaction, but otherwise is safe to handle.
I did my first experiment batch like so:
100% coconut oil, 0% superfat, NaOH to liquid ratio of 1:1.9
Then for the liquid I used either:
- 100% distilled water
- 50% water / ox gall
- 100% ox gall
The internet says bile is >97% water, so I don’t think I can add more; maybe the effect is there with a lot less, TBD.
I’m pretty sure the NaOH reacted somewhat with the ox gall because it turned from an amber beer color to something cloudier. I’m wondering if like with citric acid I should adjust the lye somehow, but I don’t have the tools for titration so I don’t know how to test how much lye the ox gall consumes… any ideas? Maybe I should add a small amount at trace instead?
I used coconut oil for now since it’s supposed to be high cleansing, but eventually I want to switch it with tallow, both for the perverse consistency of an all-cow product (in for a penny, in for a pound), as well as match the likely traditional recipe, and make it a “0 km” soap.
When I mixed the lye into the oil, the 100% water one immediately came to trace as is usual for coconut oil, but was substantially slower with the ox gall; it stayed thick for a while but when I actually tried to scatter traces on top they’d immediately sink. I eventually got to trace, but I don’t know what that means about what the ox gall is doing to the soap.
To test the soap, I plan to take an old white towel, pour some red wine on it, wait a day and then try:
- an honest attempt at cleaning with each soap
- dissolve some soap in water, then leave on the stain for 30 min, wash away and see who’s cleaned off the most
- the same but on a oil-stained red towel to see if it also removes clothing dyes
I’ll let y’all know how it goes in one month!
Any tips or suggestions on how to develop a stain removing recipe are extremely welcome!
Gallseife is a traditional soap used for stain removal that is commercially available here in Switzerland but little known otherwise. It’s very popular among people who like to stick with “natural” ingredients although obviously it’s not vegetarian. It can make people a little squeamish, but until beef consumption goes out of fashion, I personally would rather use every bit of the cows we sacrifice. I’ve used the commercial soaps for 15 years, and it is amazingly good at removing stains, without being irritating to handle.
Needless to say, companies don’t share how they make it, and I haven’t been able to find a modern recipe online. The closest was this PDF of 100 year old recipes but the ratio of lye to oils was absurd, which makes me think that either they just cleaned with extremely high pH in the past, or their lye was substantially less pure than it is today.
So I’m trying to re-invent the recipe the hard way: trial and error.
Finding ox gall was easier than I expected; it’s an ingredient used in painting and art restoration, so I got a liter online from the brand Schmincke. The only safety indication is that it will cause eye-irritation if it gets in your eyes and can cause an allergic reaction, but otherwise is safe to handle.
I did my first experiment batch like so:
100% coconut oil, 0% superfat, NaOH to liquid ratio of 1:1.9
Then for the liquid I used either:
- 100% distilled water
- 50% water / ox gall
- 100% ox gall
The internet says bile is >97% water, so I don’t think I can add more; maybe the effect is there with a lot less, TBD.
I’m pretty sure the NaOH reacted somewhat with the ox gall because it turned from an amber beer color to something cloudier. I’m wondering if like with citric acid I should adjust the lye somehow, but I don’t have the tools for titration so I don’t know how to test how much lye the ox gall consumes… any ideas? Maybe I should add a small amount at trace instead?
I used coconut oil for now since it’s supposed to be high cleansing, but eventually I want to switch it with tallow, both for the perverse consistency of an all-cow product (in for a penny, in for a pound), as well as match the likely traditional recipe, and make it a “0 km” soap.
When I mixed the lye into the oil, the 100% water one immediately came to trace as is usual for coconut oil, but was substantially slower with the ox gall; it stayed thick for a while but when I actually tried to scatter traces on top they’d immediately sink. I eventually got to trace, but I don’t know what that means about what the ox gall is doing to the soap.
To test the soap, I plan to take an old white towel, pour some red wine on it, wait a day and then try:
- an honest attempt at cleaning with each soap
- dissolve some soap in water, then leave on the stain for 30 min, wash away and see who’s cleaned off the most
- the same but on a oil-stained red towel to see if it also removes clothing dyes
I’ll let y’all know how it goes in one month!
Any tips or suggestions on how to develop a stain removing recipe are extremely welcome!
