Slowly add lye to cold water, stir to dissolve. Melt fat and let it cool. Pour into lye and use a wooden spoon to stir until it gets too stiff to stir.
By Robin
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
For anyone who wants to try their hand at making old timey lye soap, along with these great recipes from Robin, they will need to know what to do with this mixture when it begins to set up. It has been many years since I made lye soap, but I believe that I lined large cake pans with a piece of old sheet. Then poured the very thick mixture into this pan. Let stand for at least 24 hours, lift it out of the pan by the edges of the sheet, pull the sheet loose from the soap and cut into bars.
Don't you have to store soap after its made to allow it to become less caustic? Just something I read somewhere.........
As an aside - a can of lye is presumably bought. If you have to buy the lye and/or the fat it would be much cheaper to buy household soap. If you are looking to a time when there may be no more shop bought soap, (e.g.
On the other hand if you are just looking for a bit of fun soap making sounds great - like patchwork - you get all the fun and a useful product at the end!
Regards
Jo
Last I heard lye is a very dangerous substance that can cause terrible burns. Be careful! It may be more frugal to just buy soap. These days it's not that expensive when you consider your safety!
I've made homemade soap before. It is quite fun and you can customize it to your liking. A couple of things to consider: DO NOT do this in an aluminum pot aluminum reacts with the base (lye) causing frothing, heat, a nasty smell and ruined soap. Where I am from, US Alabama, lard is quite cheap and so is lye. Due to health concerns with lard for cooking, important concerns I might add, it is not in high demand for cooking.
Rue
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
