My Dad and I used to make soap together outside. We were able to just stir it--there was no such thing as stick blenders then. It was always smooth and nice, well-mixed. I just tried to make some goat milk soap with a much different recipe than Dad and I used, like palm kernal oil, shea butter, goat milk, olive oil and more. I stirred cooled lye into melted, cooled fat and it never got smooth, looked more crumbley textured, with little liquid pockets in it. It got thick and left what I thought was trace, but it still looked crumbly and still had some liquid.. I stirred harder because it was not uniformly creamy like I know it should be. Eventually I poured it into a wooden log mold lined with parchment paper. The liquid part started leaking out of the screwed on ends of the mold. I assumed this liquid was caustic so am cleaning up carefully. Is there a way to remake this same batch of soap after I buy an appropriate stick blender? I have an old stick blender here, but it is all plastic and the bell was too round, too, would rather get a new one that had good reviews on this forum. I left the soap in the mold and put it outside on some double-thick cardboard on a glass table. But I will put it in a durable plastic tray soon. Will it ever ripen, or should I try to re-blend it, or is it too late? If I have to throw it out, how can I do safely do that? We have a septic tank and I know that it should not go there. We do not have garbage pickup and I do not think it should go in the dump/landfill either. Will it always be hazardous or will it be safe once it ripens? If yes, how will I tell it is ready?
I did not use a stick blender and...
- Thread starter Glenta
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If your oils and lye were too cool, it could be that you got a false trace and then your batter later separated.
Are you using fresh ingredients? Where you using fresh goat milk or evaporated? What are the percentages of your ingredients and what was your lye solution?
I make small batches of soap and have found myself using my stick blender less and less as it was much too easy to over blend a small batch to pudding.
You could probably rebatch via the stove or crock pot. No, it will not always be hazardous. With a loss of liquids it is probably just ‘lye heavy’ right now. I don’t know anymore that what I have read about this stuff, but I’m sure someone else can answer them.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
I agree, sounds like false trace. Thats where the oils get cool enough to start solidifying, can happen with recipes that have a lot of hard oils.
You should have soaped hot, the warmer your batter, the quicker it traces.
Next time try soaping around 100 F. With a stick blender, it will trace nicely.
You should have soaped hot, the warmer your batter, the quicker it traces.
Next time try soaping around 100 F. With a stick blender, it will trace nicely.
I third the false trace. Have your oils at least just warm. Cool lye isn't a problem, at least not for me. Also, sometimes the recipe can affect things.
Hi, and thanks everyone, false trace makes sense--wondered about that myself as a chemist but did not have a name for it. It is a super-fatted recipe containing some Palm Kernal oil and some shea butter, which both have high melting points--kind of a challenging recipe with multiple fats and percentages, maximum liquid (goat milk), and super-fatted, all at once. I substituted canola oil for rice bran oil and re-ran the lye calculator , and lye amount was almost the same, only varied at the hundreth of an ounce level and of course the chart on the lye calculator for super fats has some leeway--went with the top row of numbers in pink area of chart when I weighed out the lye. My scale is accurate. The lye is 100% NAOH but is a new brand, cheaper per ounce, hardware store doesn't carry the old brand anymore, so it is possible there is some kind of quality issue with the lye also, but I think mostly what happened was because of hand mixing and super fats and higher melting point fats than I have ever used. The recipe actually said to cool everything down to 90 degrees before mixing fats and lyes and I went with a little higher than that because I was cross-checking with another goat milk soap method that said 100-125 degrees when you combine. I had it at 100-105 but need an easier to read thermometer, too. It was well under 125 degree max in the other recipe, for sure. Goat milk was frozen by me from fresh that I bought from a farmer, and I thawed it to a slush first before adding the lye, as the recipe said to do. I had pasturized it before I froze it and I am noticing in a different remilling recipe I have done where goat milk is added during the milling stage, that the pasturized and frozen goatmilk was a bit grainy and separated when I thawed it for that recipe, too, although the remilled soap is fine when it is fully cured, so my home pasturization followed by long freezer time might also have been part of the problem. I pre-weighed all the goat milk at the time I froze it. Probably should have frozen it fresh, but recall that was not recommended ze fresh goat milk unpasturized to and yes, it had been in freezer several years, so not totally fresh. (Confession time). Last night at bedtime in the cool air out doors it had already set up with all visible liquids solidified and this morning it is quite solid, still grainy, the solidified liquids are greasy and not caustic, so, superfat. My plan after talking with a local and very experienced soap maker on phone is to leave it in a cool but not freezing area of our workshop for at least 2 more weeks, so it can cure in the mold. Then I will turn it out and cut it on a lye-safe surface with gloves on in case there are pockets. Will that be enough time to complete saponification? I will probably remill it, but will judge that by number of lye pockets and stability once I turn it out of the mold--we raise sheep and I had planned to felt it, so remilling might not be necessary if it is solid and stable. I am buying the cheapo Hamilton Beach stick blender that has good reviews on this site for soap making at Walmart quite soon!!!!!!! Thanks again and I have learned a lot!
BTW the recipe I was using is long but is the goat milk soap recipe on Soap Making Resources.com, where I bought my 5 pound wooden mold and many of the oils in the recipe (but not all of them).
Were your fats clear when you poured in your lye solution? You really did not have a high enough percentage of PKO or Shea to cause a false trace unless your oils were just too cool. Soap batter can thicken at first, (I assume this is what is referred to as false trace), especially when oils are cool and cool lye is used, until the lye starts to react and heat the batter, it will then thin out. Your recipe with 50% OO should have really been a slow tracing so I guess you just poured it before it was actually emulsified.
I have a couple of fast-moving recipes that will thicken immediately when I pour in my room temp lye (many would call it false trace, I just call it cool versus cool oils), I just stir until the color changes, it starts to warm and thins out, I stir or quickly pulse with a SB to emulsion, color, add fo pour.
I have a couple of fast-moving recipes that will thicken immediately when I pour in my room temp lye (many would call it false trace, I just call it cool versus cool oils), I just stir until the color changes, it starts to warm and thins out, I stir or quickly pulse with a SB to emulsion, color, add fo pour.
Yes, my fats were clear when I poured the lye in. You explained that false trace thing well, makes sense. I was on a phone call just listening while I stirred. It might have solidified slower than I thought due to that. Watched my stirring constantly while I listened and it just seemed faster than usual.
