I wanted to share my newest mistake! I'd say I'm a beginning soaper... I've made maybe 20-30 batches? And I had a very successful soap with honey in it, at about 1 tbsp per pound. It was cold process, but since then I've done almost exclusively hot process since I like to use hard oils and butters and CP seizes up on me too easily. So I repeated the recipe with hot process. Fought with it hardening up in the pot so I had to turn up the heat and stirred until it was all a smooth beautiful gel stage. So far so good. I spooned in the honey... GENEROUSLY. Then at the end I thought, "Oh well there's only a few spoons left in the jar I'll just pour them in" And suddenly the honey blackened and the whole thing VOLCANO'ed like there's no tomorrow. I was just lucky I was watching it like a hawk! I couldn't even cross the kitchen for my whisk, it was volcanoing that fast! Stir-stir-stir-stir-stir like a madwoman as it's blackening and volcanoing and I can SMELL the honey caramelizing! I I turned off the heat and took it off the stove but it was STILL volcanoing! Thank goodness there was a pot of boiled eggs on the stove. I snatched it up, emptied it into the sink and started scooping the volcano into the pot like crazy, all trying to avoid a mess on the stove. Thank goodness I did avoid it, mainly by turning on the fan in the kitchen, so it eventually cooled and subsided. I added my glycerin (I make homemade melt-and-pour with lots of glycerin in HP) and it's now simmering on the stove. I have a feeling it's going to be very dark orange, maybe black...
Honey Hot Process Horror
- Thread starter SarahE.
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Marilyn Norgart
Well-Known Member
oh no--that sounds horrible. I have never added the honey until after I turned off the crock and am ready to pour and now I never will, thanks for the warning. I also have told myself "oh there is only a little left I might as well use it up" I actually probably double what everyone says to use of honey with no problem. do you use high heat with your crock or low?
Thanks for the good wishes! I alternate between high and low depending on what stage the soap is at, usually high heat at the start to avoid false trace, then low for the rest of the cook. (I actually use a stainless steel pot on my stovetop.) I've been finding it easier to just use high heat and be done with the hot process in a shorter time, lately.
Dawni
Well-Known Member
I've not made many soaps with honey but the ones that I did got the honey diluted in hot water and added after the cook, when the pot is already off and the soap has been sitting a few minutes.
The water is part of the water amount the calc gave. I usually soap with 70% of it and don't use the rest of the water unless I need to, for fluidity and/or additives like honey, coconut milk powder, etc.
The water is part of the water amount the calc gave. I usually soap with 70% of it and don't use the rest of the water unless I need to, for fluidity and/or additives like honey, coconut milk powder, etc.
I'm glad to hear you're ok and you managed to control the volcano. It sounds scary! One of my first soaps (I think it was my third or fourth batch at the time) was a HP to which I added honey. I had already taken it off the heat but apparently it was still too warm because the honey started to caramelize immediately. The soap smelled like burnt sugar and turned an icky greenish brown which was supposed to be soft green. I called it my baby poop soap and I never used honey in HP again...[emoji85]
EXACTLY!!!! It smells like burnt sugar!!! Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone!
