Need recipe for lard soap that traces quickly.

[Molly M Nightingale]

3 weeks ago I agreed to show some students how to make old fashioned lard soap at a "pioneer day" outing. It's just us parents giving it for our private school, so not really high stakes or anything. I've never made soap, but am learning now. (Yes, I know this wasn't real intelligent but none of the other parents had made soap either.)

I've made 3 batches of hot process soap with lard, lye and water, (which turned out fine). I did hot process so I can hand out cured soap to each child, but will be doing cold process for the children.

Each group of children will have about 15 minutes at the soap making spot, so I can't show them the whole process from beginning to end and will need to modernize some steps. We will be in a pasture, so I'll be using a cordless drill and paint stirrer, which isn't nearly as fast as an immersion blender, but faster than stirring by hand. My plan is to have everything ready to mix when they arrive, and hopefully bring it to trace and pour in a mold before they leave. It really isn't essential that the soap actually turn out right, because the children won't see it after it goes in the mold.

Since I am short on time to research it much more, could I get some suggestions for a recipe and method (temperatures) that would have the best chance of coming to trace quickly so the children can see it poured into the mold. (I know that 100% lard isn't the best soap and traces slowly, but we're going for old fashioned, here.)

First recipe I tried was crisco based because I didn't have any lard yet. It traced in 5 min with an immersion blender. It turned out.

Second recipe:
30 oz lard, home rendered
3.88 oz lye
11 oz water.

Mixed Oil and lye solution at 100 degrees .
It traced in 12 minutes with immersion blender.

Recipe 3:
36 oz of lard (increased to fill my mold)
4.7 oz lye
9.35 oz of water

I tried mixing the hot lye (shortly after the lye was dissolved) into room temp lard to see if I could skip heating the lard in the field. After 20 min of using a drill and paint stirrer, I gave up (I needed to make supper) and dumped it in my warm crockpot and used the immersion blender. It came to trace in 2 minutes, and turned out fine.

What can you suggest? I plan to try several different stirring heads in the drill today....

Thanks!

 

[shunt2011]

Hello and Welcome!! First, Hot Process is not cured any quicker than CP soap. That's false information that is shared way too often. Soap needs a least 4 weeks in most cases. Totally dependent on what's in it.

I would at the very least add some Coconut to your recipe and some Castor (both can be purchased at the store/pharmacy (Walmart). How are you going to /warm/heat your oils if you're in the middle of a field? I would mix my lye just before you make the soap. Add it hot to your lard and CO if you add some. that should help getting it to trace a bit quicker. Though high lard usually allows more time than other recipes. You're going to need to try different techniques to see what will work best with your set-up. That means using the drill with the paint stirrer to make a batch.