Here at Dry Hollow Farm, we create thousands of bars of soap every year.
Making soap is a tricky task …
Why?
Because our soap contains both goat milk (which is a liquid) and oils (such as olive oil and coconut oil). Liquids and oils will not mix!
In order to create a hard bar of soap, another substance must be added to create a chemical reaction that will blend oils and milk. It’s basic chemistry, and the process is called “saponification”.
What do we add to combine the oils with goat milk?
We use lye, also called sodium hydroxide, which is an all-natural product that comes from wood ashes.
Think of the last time you sat around a campfire. Maybe you roasted marshmallows or hotdogs. Maybe you held a long stick in the flames to watch it burn.
What remained in the firepit after the wood finished burning?
Wood ashes!
If you read stories from time periods before the introduction of factories and electricity, people used wood ashes, large kettles, fire, and animal fats to create bars of soap for washing laundry, dishes, and people.
When we add lye to our frozen cubes of raw goat milk, we must be very careful because it will burn skin or eyes. Once the lye and milk are melted together into a liquid, we mix them with our combination of oils. We have to use a stick blender for speedy blending.
We know the mixture is ready to pour into soap molds when it looks and feels like soft pudding.
Measuring the right amount of each ingredient is very important! Science is the key to determining how much of each to use for the goat milk soap recipe.
Soapmaking, like cooking, is as much about science as it is about craft!
