Boiled Soap

Ingredients

• Place the grease, consisting of soup-bones and all kinds of fat that accumulate in a kitchen, in a kettle
• Add lye, a gallon at the time
• to one spoonful of soap add one of rain-water

Method

1. 1

   Fill the kettle half full with grease.

2. 2

   Heat it very hot and stir to prevent burning.

3. 3

   Add lye until it boils, watching closely.

4. 4

   Continue boiling for a few hours until it flows from the stick like thick molasses.

5. 5

   If it remains thin, let it stand overnight, then drain carefully into another vessel.

6. 6

   Wash the kettle, return the soap, and bring to a boil again if needed.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Buckeye cookery (1892), page 298. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Boiled Soap.—There is no romance or poetry in making boiled soap, only patient hard work; yet without this useful article, what an unpresentable people we should be. Place the grease, consisting of soup-bones and all kinds of fat that accumulate in a kitchen, in a kettle, filling it only half full; if there is too much fat, it can be skimmed off after the soap is cold, for another kettle of soap. This is the only true test when enough fat is used, as the lye will consume all that is needed and no more. Make a fire under one side of it. The kettle should be in an out-house or out of doors. Let it heat very hot so as to fry, and stir it to prevent burning; now put in the lye, a gallon at the time, watch closely until it boils, as it sometimes runs over at the beginning. Add lye until the kettle is full enough, but not too. full, to boil well. Soap should boil from the side and not the middle, as this would be more likely to cause it to boil over. To test the soap, to one spoonful of soap add one of rain-water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.