Making Soap is Fun and Fabulous Try Our Goat Milk Soap Recipes!  1) A good scale that weighs in 1/10 ounce increments. 2) Stainless steel stockpot - (4 quarts or larger). 3) Wooden or heavy duty plastic spoon. 4) Pyrex or plastic container large enough to hold about twice as much milk as you will use. 5) Plastic gloves and safety goggles. 6) Box to use as a soap mold. For soap recipes, you will probably want to invest in an immiscible stick blender. It isn’t completely necessary, but it will speed up the soap making process enormously. Another nice thing to have is a thermometer that measures between 50 to 160 degrees. Walmart and most kitchen stores sell a little dial thermometer that fits into a plastic sleeve for about $12 that works great. The stick blender can be purchased in the same places for $10 to $20 and I have found the cheaper ones work just as well as the more expensive ones. One caution here, all oils are not alike. You need to use only the oils I call out here with no substitutions in this soap recipe. If you want to use different oils, the amount of lye will be different, too. This is due to the fact each oil has a specific saponification value. The saponification value specifies the number of lye molecules needed to turn a molecule of oil into soap. We want to leave just a few molecules of oil unsaponified so we know all the lye has been reacted with the oil. If there is extra lye left in the soap, it will be harsh and will actually damage your skin. I calculated the exact amount of lye needed for this soap recipe and this recipe alone. So, no substituting oils! Also, the curing time specified below is three weeks. The soap is usable immediately, but the lye/oil reaction takes time and the three week cure time is to insure that all the lye has finished reacting before anyone uses the soap. You shouldn’t be afraid to use your homemade soap, as long as you don’t substitute oils, measure carefully, and allow your soap plenty of time to cure.  Essential oils are bioactive ingredients. That means, they contain natural chemicals that interact with biological systems. They are potent chemicals that should be respected and used with care.
Lately, finding lye has become a problem for the small soap maker. Unfortunately, it is an ingredient in illegal homemade drugs, so the lye companies have just about all stopped packaging it for household use. You cannot use any kind of “drain cleaner.” Try the cleaning supply section of the local hardware stores. I have heard that Lowe’s carries an 18 ounce bottle of real lye, but I don’t know the brand. If you have trouble finding lye, check soap making supplies on my other website, www.spencersfarm.com. Please e-mail to check availability of soap supplies. Before you begin with this soap recipe, make sure you are wearing rubber gloves and safety goggles. You will be handling lye and it can cause extremely painful burns if it contacts your skin. If you do happen to get a lye burn, pour white vinegar on the burn to neutralize the lye. If you spill lye, wipe the area with generous amounts of white vinegar to be sure all lye is neutralized. Accurately weigh the following ingredients: Olive oil – 24 oz. Coconut oil - 10 oz. (Lou Anna brand available at WalMart in approximately a 3 lb. jar) Lard – 30 oz. Milk – 24 oz. (Pour into a shallow pan and freeze solid, break into chunks before using.) Lye – 8.7 oz. Additive suggestions: Food coloring, ground oatmeal, pumice, dried lavender buds, skin-safe essential oil. Once the ingredients are measured, you can begin...   Custom Search 1) Prepare your molds. You can use a plastic shoe box and spray it with Pam Cooking Spray, or you can use a cardboard shoe box and line it with a plastic garbage bag. In Your Stainless Steel Stockpot: 2) Melt your lard and coconut oil. Do not heat above 115 degrees. 3) Add your olive oil. 4) Sprinkle about 1/3 of the lye on your frozen milk. Always put lye into liquid-not the other way around. 5) Stir to mix well and make sure all the lumps of lye are broken up and dissolved. 6) Add another 1/3 of the lye to your milk and lye mixture. 7) Stir again, making sure all the little lumps of lye are broken up and dissolved. 8) Add the rest of the lye into the milk and lye mixture. Keep an eye on the temperature, and make sure the lye/milk doesn’t get hotter than about 140 degrees or else the milk will scorch. If the milk has all thawed, put the lye in very slowly in small amounts, waiting until the temperature goes below 90 degrees before each addition. 9) Monitor the temperature of the lye and of the oils. 10) When they both reach a temperature of 90 to 100 degrees, you can go to the next step. 11) Slowly pour the milk/lye mixture into the oils while stirring. 12) Stir until the soap “traces” (traced soap is just thick enough for you to drizzle a little soap from the spoon back on top of the mixture and it sits on the top for a second or two before disappearing into the soap. In other words, you see the trace of the soap on the surface) If stirring by hand, this can take hours. Using a stick blender, it could take up to ˝ hour. 13) Add any additives you want now. 14) Stir well and quickly. 15) Pour into your mold. 16) Cover the top of the mold with a lid or plastic wrap. 17) Set on a folded towel, and cover with another folded towel to insulate. 18) Leave the soap to sit, insulated, for 8 to 48 hours until solid. The soap will go through several stages now, one of which is completely liquid again. 19) Dump the soap out of the mold and using a sharp kitchen (butcher) knife cut into bars. 20) Set the bars on a non-metallic surface to cure for 3 weeks. Unless you have a rack that will allow airflow all around,you will need to turn the bars over now and then, so the air will circulate all around and the bars will cure uniformly. Making soap is a lot of work. Following goat milk soap recipes is a little extra work. You don’t want your milk to scorch, but it's worth the extra effort. I hope everyone, with their own goat milk, will try making goat milk soap sometime. One soap recipe batch will last a long time. We hope this recipe has helped you learn how to make soap. 
Soap/lotion making classes are only offered "seasonally" and by appointment". Please call (931) 438-8388 or e-mail us.    In June of 2009, I attended a soap-making workshop in Historic Downtown Pratteville, Alabama. This was the 11th annual workshop presented by the Alabama Soap and Candle Association. Here are some of my friends and colleagues. This 11th annual soap workshop was featured in the Alabama Cooperative Farming News of August 2009. Return from Soap Recipes to Natural Goats Milk Soap Home
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