<table border=0 cellpadding=2 cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
<pre>Since several folks have asked me for my recipe, I decided to cover all the
bases and post it to the list.
First and foremost -- do go buy a book or two or raid your local library (my
little country library even had a good resource) on soapmaking. Any of the
books will describe the safety measures you MUST take and the equipment
quality which must be used. YOU MUST RESPECT THE LYE! It is a dangerous
corrosive, and you cannot allow yourself to be casual in using it. Do make
the investment in heavy rubber golves!
Beyond that, however, most of the books make the process sound a whole lot
more difficult than it really is. For the containers for the lye solution and
the mixing, I use the BIG heavy glass jars which pickles and artichoke hearts
come in, which hold about a gallon of liquid. This give you plenty of room to
work in, AND the tall, narrow shape speeds up the saponification process. The
lye jar is best if you have a lid for it to use for the pouring process. Poke
3 holes in opposite sides of the lid, say at a 12:00 and a 6:00 position, and
set the lid aside for the final processing. (DO NOT PUT THE LID ON THE LYE
SOLUTION WHEN YOU HAVE FIRST MIXED THE LYE.)
Before you will also need a soap mold to pour the soap into. I use a
cardboard shoebox (which gets thrown away after I'm done, and I just use
another one the next batch), and I line the box with a heavy black plastic
garbage bag. You will also need a cooking thermometer which registers below
100° F and up over boiling. Ideally, have 2 of these thermometers, but if you
are like me and you only have one, be sure you thoroughly rinse and dry it
between using it in the two different containers.
The books will also tell you to use weight measures, but I don't have a scale
of that nature, and the volume measures I use in my recipe have always worked
splendidly for me.
I mix the lye solution early in the morning and set it aside in a safe place
to cool. The chemical reaction of putting lye and water together creates a
surprising amount of heat! Put the lye into the dry mixing container first,
and then slowly stir the water into the lye. You may need to go back a few
times to stir it again after you have set it aside. You want all the lye to
be in solution.
Several hours later, I check the temperature in the ley solution, and if it
is 95° F or less, I'm ready to make soap. (important here -- I'm using the
American Farenheit temperature NOT the Celcius scale! You do NOT want these
liquids anywhere near a boiling point)
I use two big stainless steel cooking pots In which I place some hot tap
water. These are the water baths I use to get my lye solution and my olive
oil to the same temperatures. I set the big jars of each in their own bath,
and stir, then check the temperature, then let them sit for a minute, stir
again, check the temperatures . . . you get the picture! You want to get
the two liquids to a range of 95° to 98° F. It's really not hard to do at
all. If one pot gets there first, pull it out of the water bath and set it
aside, but be sure to keep checking it to make sure it doesn't go below 95° F.
Put the lid with the holes in it on the lye jar, and pour it slowly into the
olive oil jar. If you can get one person to pour and another to stir, this
works well, but I manage this myself all the time. Just be certain that
anyone in the process wears their rubber gloves.
This is when saponification begins, and it's a little like making homemade
mayonaise, if you've ever done that! You can't run off and answer the phone,
etc. You will stand there and stir and stir and stir! If you have used a
wide container, the molecules will not bump into each other as well as they do
in a tall, narrow container, so if you are using a wide container, be prepared
to stir for 30 minutes. With my jars, I usually have full saponification at
15 to 20 minutes.
Time, however, is not the deciding factor. The soap is "done" when it
"traces". This means that when you life your spoon, and dribble a string of
the solution across the surface, it leaves a clear path which remains for a
few seconds. This you will also have noticed the solution becoming cloudy and
thicker as you stir. After you've made a few batches, you'll feel more
confident about knowing when it is "done".
Pour it in the prepared mold, put the lid on it, and put it in a place where
it will cool very slowly. Do not rush this process. I put mine in a coleman
cooler and I pack plastic grocery bags all around it to keep the heat in. (A
cooler is only a cooling device if it has ice in it! If you put something hot
in it and don't use ice, the insulation will preseve the heat. This is the
best way I have discovered for my soap to cool slowly.) If you want to, you
can "score" the soap when it has set up partially, which makes it easier to
cut bars later.
Several days later, I remove the soap from the cooler and from the mold (wth
my rubber gloves ON), and I cut it into blocks, which are then set in a glass
casserole pan with a newspaper just lightly set over it, and I set it on a
HIGH shelf out of the way. This "cold process" soap must sit for a month for
the lye to be TOTALLY neutralized. Write the date on the batch if you think
you'll forget when you made it.
After a month, it is ready to use, or you can grate it and melt it by adding
water to it (I use a double boiler for this so the soap won't scorch), and
then you can put in any additives you might want and/or pour it into
interesting molds for a more attractive product.

Here are the ingredients:

26 ounces of olive oil
3.5 ounces of lye
10 ounces of room temperature distilled water

If you are trying to cut costs and don't want to use all olive oil, you can
make a reasonable soap with

16 ounces of solid vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
10 ounces of olive oil
3.5 ounces of lye
10 ounces of distilled water

These two recipes make small, manageable batches, and the supply of soap will
last a family a couple of months.

Any of the soap books available have all kinds of interesting formulas which
include coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, etc. I haven't wanted or needed
to go in that direction, as my focus has been to study and recreate a product
which was being made in southern Europe and the Middle East prior to 1600 A.D.

To Hanna and the rest -- ENJOY!
Wishing you all many blessings this day,
bets

Betsy Packard
Shelby County, KY USA (where we are in the middle of an interesting ice
storm!)
</pre>
</td></tr></table>