~From: aviva@excelan (Aviva Garrett)
~Newsgroups: mod.recipes
~Subject: RECIPE: Face and body soap
~Date: 14 Nov 86 02:07:12 GMT
~Sender: recipes@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Excelan, Inc., San Jose, California
~Lines: 202

              Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
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				"SOAP

MOD.RECIPES-SOURCE SOAP O "7 Aug 86" 1986

"A nice body and face soap"
	This is a luxurious and gentle handmade soap. It's a lot of work 
to make, but it's also a lot of fun. It is a good use for huge
quantities of fat left over from cooking something.

	One of the main ingredients in soap is lye (sodium hydroxide,
NaOH).  Lye is *extremely* caustic even at room temperature, and in 
this recipe it is heated.  Because of this, you need to exercise extreme 
care when you make soap.  You should always wear shoes (not sandals), 
long pants, a long-sleeved top, and gloves (I use rubber gloves).  Also, 
*be sure to wear eye protection.*

	If you get lye on your skin, you can quickly run to the sink and 
wash it off with LOTS of cold water; if you get lye in your eyes, rinsing 
it off may involve going to the emergency room.  

	You should make certain that children and pets are somewhere 
else and will not interrupt you.  

	There is no room for mistakes when dealing with lye.  

		6 pounds of soap (3.5 kg of soap)

9 pounds suet (4 kg)(this is also called tallow or beef fat)
1 container lye (see note)
3 cups water (750 ml)
2 cups lemon juice (500 ml)
1/4 oz volatile fragrance oil (7.5 ml)(optional; see note)

TOOLS
	You will need a large pot (metal or ceramic), at least 2 gallons
(8 litres), with a lid. This is for rendering the fat.

	One long wooden spoon (at least 10 inches (25 cm)).  This should 
be a spoon that you can sacrifice, because the lye will eat away the
wood. 

	You will need a large ceramic or glass bowl.  This must be 
capable of holding all the water, lemon juice, and fat with some room 
to spare.  I use a ceramic tub that is about 6 inches high and 24 
inches in diameter.  *Do not use metal*, as it will corrode.  Even 
stainless steel will corrode.

	Finally, you will need some glass, ceramic, and/or wooden molds 
to pour the soap into. I use glass baking dishes; two 8-1\2 by 14-inch 
(22 by 35-cm) glass pans will make bars of soap that are about 1 to 1-1/2 
inches (2 to 3 cm) thick.  Again, *DO NOT USE METAL CONTAINERS*, as they 
will corrode.

Instructions:

1.  Render the fat.

	To do this, cut the fat into hand-sized pieces and place in a 
large pot and cover it.  Heat on a medium heat until all the fat is
melted.  You should stir it occasionally.  You should probably plan to 
turn the fan on high or open your kitchen windows while you are doing
this.  (Note that if you are starting with a pure fat, such as coconut
oil or olive oil, you don't need to do this.  Skip to Step 4.)

2.  Cool the fat so that it is below the boiling point of water.  Add an 
equal volume of water to the fat, and bring the mixture to a boil.  Cover 
and let cool over night.

3.  Take the fat out of the pot.  
I find the easiest way to do this is to slice the fat in half with a 
knife and then cut wedges.  You can push the first wedge down into 
the water and then lift its neighboring wedge out.  Scrape all the 
non-fat gunk off the bottom of the fat (the side of the fat that was at 
the fat-water interface).

4.  Measure out six pounds (2.75 kg) of rendered fat (be accurate 
with this measurement).
Cut the fat into small pieces (about the size of a tennis ball, but 
squarish, not round) and place in a bowl.

5.  Set up your soap-making work area.
It should be outside, in a very well ventilated area.  It's supposed to 
help to do it on a warmer day rather than a cooler day, but I've 
never noticed the difference.  Also, clear your stove top and open 
the window in the kitchen before you start making the soap.

	On a table, put your ceramic tub, the bowl of fat, the opened
container of lye, a container with the water, and a container with the 
lemon juice.  If you will be adding scent, keep its container nearby.
Also place your soap mold containers nearby.

	Put on all your safety gear.  (See above.)

6.  Make the soap:

Pour the water into the ceramic tub.
Very carefully pour the lye into the tub.  This is an exothermic
reaction: it gives off heat, which is used to melt the fat.  It also 
gives off odors which you don't want to breathe, so keep your head back. 

Stir the lye to dissolve it in the water.  
Then start adding the fat to the water/lye mixture, stirring
with the long wooden spoon.

Add the fat a bit at a time and stir until it's all melted.
Then stir in the lemon juice, scent (if you are using it), and
pour into molds.

When the soap is firmer but not yet hard, cut into bars with a knife.
It should be hard in an hour or so; you can test it with your finger.

7.  Wrap in clean cotton rags and store in a cool, airy place for 
3-6 months.

8.  Cleaning up.

	When you clean up the pan that you made the soap it, be somewhat 
careful as there is probably still some unreacted lye in the pan.  The 
only time I've had a problem with this is when I've tried to scrape the 
dry soap that lines the pan off with my fingernail and then a few
minutes later I notice that the skin under my fingernail is burning. 
The easiest solution is just to wear gloves when you're cleaning the
pan.  It probably also helps to wash with extremely hot water so that
the remaining soap (and fat if there is any) melts and dissolves in the
water. 

Notes:

In the U.S., Red Devil lye comes in 12-oz containers. In Europe it
generally comes in 350-g containers, which is about 3% more. You don't 
want to measure lye: you want to use the whole container. If your
container is not this size, then scale the recipe up or down
accordingly.  Leftover lye is a serious disposal problem.

Where to buy 9 pound (4 kg) of fat?  If you're using an animal fat 
(beef or pork), you can buy it from your butcher.  What I find I have 
to do is reserve it, because they normally don't keep the fat after 
they've cut up their cow.  Sometimes they will charge you for the fat 
(I've paid anywhere from 10 to 45 cents a pound); sometimes they won't.

I've only ever made soap with beef fat; this makes a hard, mild,
slow-lathering soap.  The recipe will work equally well with other 
animal fats to produce a similar result.  Coconut oil yields a softer, 
quick-lathering soap.  Olive oil and other vegetable cooking oils yield 
a very soft soap that never completely hardens.  Unfortunately, these 
oils are sensitive to air and light, and soap made from cooking oils 
will spoil in a few weeks unless it is refrigerated.

Volatile fragrance oils, also called essential oils, are highly
concentrated scent ingredients. You can usually buy them at health-food 
stores, and you can sometimes find exotic fragrances at specialty 
food-and-spice shops.  The amount that you should use depends on how 
fragrant you want the soap to be.  A few drops of musk oil is enough 
to scent an entire batch of soap; less-potent fragrances such as a 
fruit oil might require a teaspoon or two (5-10 ml).

Soap scented with herbs is also popular; herbs like lemon thyme or
verbena or lavender work well.  To scent with herbs, make an herbal oil 
by packing a 1/2-cup (100-ml) container with herbs and then filling it 
with a pleasant-smelling vegetable oil such as almond oil.  Let this 
mixture sit for a few weeks, stirring it every day, then heat in a 
double boiler for 10 minutes, then cool and strain the oil.

The soap works just fine with no fragrance at all, and many people
prefer it that way.  I certainly do.

You may run into problems at the stage ``Add the fat and stir until 
it's all melted.''  I almost always do.  What happens is that the 
water/lye mixture runs out of heat before all the fat melts.  What you 
have to do is add heat somehow.  The way I do this is to grab the tub 
(which now contains all the fat), go into the kitchen, put it on top 
of a burner, and turn the burner (and the fan) on high.  (Make sure 
the windows are all open too.)  When all the fat is melted, I go back 
outside and continue, adding the lemon juice.  The lemon juice lowers
the pH.  

The finished soap will have a pH of about 9; you can lower this by adding
more lemon juice.

	RATING
Difficulty: challenging.
Time:
Day 1:  30 minutes preparation; 1-2 hours cooking.
Day 2:  usually about 1 hour.
Precision:  Be precise.  Also be careful.

Aviva Garrett
Santa Cruz, CA
Excelan, Inc., San Jose
ucbvax!mtxinu!excelan!aviva
				===================== 
From: pjh@eng.cam.ac.uk (P.J. Hogben)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: REQUEST: soap recipes
Date: 10 Jan 92 14:26:32 GMT
Organization: cam.eng
 
margoli@watson.IBM.com (Larry Margolis) writes:
 
 
>        One of the main ingredients in soap is lye (sodium hydroxide,
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: REQUEST: soap recipes
Date: 10 Jan 92 14:26:32 GMT
Organization: cam.eng
 
margoli@watson.IBM.com (Larry Margolis) writes:
 
 
>        One of the main ingredients in soap is lye (sodium hydroxide,
>NaOH).  Lye is *extremely* caustic even at room temperature, and in
>this recipe it is heated.  Because of this, you need to exercise extreme
>care when you make soap.  You should always wear shoes (not sandals),
>long pants, a long-sleeved top, and gloves (I use rubber gloves).  Also,
>*be sure to wear eye protection.*
 
>        If you get lye on your skin, you can quickly run to the sink and
>wash it off with LOTS of cold water; if you get lye in your
>eyes, rinsing it off may involve going to the emergency room.
 
 
I very strongly second this warning.  I was making soap once while
studying for my chemistry 'O' level.  We had to heat the caustic soda
rather than rely on the heat of the reaction with water.  My experiment
"spat" at me and I got hot caustic soda in my face (I WAS wearing eye
goggles..... luckily) and it is not an experience I would like to
repeat.
 
So, PLEASE be careful, you people out there!
 
Philippa Hogben
 
pjh@uk.ac.cam.eng  (Janet)
pjh@eng.cam.ac.uk  (Elsewhere)
				====================

				-babs
-- 

"Excuse me, while I dance a little jig of despair."
	- hadley@ics.uci.edu (Ted Hadley)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking