Goats Milk question!

[Scentapy]

So last night I did my first goats milk soap and I am not sure if my lye fully dissolved despite my stirring and stirring.
I chilled my goats milk in the freezer until it was slushy and then added my lye to it. It turned orange and looked curdled. I stirred and stirred. My lye mixture never really smoothed out - it remained curdled looking and orange when I finally added to my oils. What concerns me though is that there were little white flecks in the mixture and I can see them in my soap (very tiny). The soap has been in the mold since about 11:00 last night and seems to be fine otherwise.

What do you think?? Do you think my lye did not dissolve? Has this happened to anyone else?

I will try to capture a picture when I get home later if that will help.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

The fat in the milk reacts to the lye and saponifies. I think your soap will be just fine. :wink:

 

[Scentapy]

A-ha... so those little white flecks could be the saponified fats? Oh I sure do hope it comes out OK!!

THANKS!!

 

[Half Caper Farm]

It sounds to me like you may have added the lye too quickly and burnt the milk. Did you dump it into the milk all at once?

I freeze my milk solid and add the lye very slowly - maybe a TBS at a time, moosh it around, scrape off the slush, then add more lye. I keep stirring the almost liquid as I go, too. The mixture rarely even gets to a pale yellow with this way. It does take a while though! Probably close to 15 minutes.

 

[Scentapy]

I poured slowly while constantly stirring but when I say slowly I mean: as opposed to dumping it in all at once - I had all the lye in the GM in about 30 seconds which is certainly not slowly compared to 15 minutes!

I will try your technique next time I do GM. Thanks for the tip!!!!

 

[chrisofcups]

I freeze the goats milks solid as well in a flat ziplock freezer bag and take off chunks as I need it. It's a little more work to break up but I find that it forces you to not rush the lye solution.