More Soap - with Fragrance

We decided to make a batch of soap; we're using the very last cake from the November 4 batch and I wanted to try a batch with fragrance. I had been thinking sandalwood but was STRONGLY overruled at the health food shop when Meg spied a bottle of lemongrass drops. So lemongrass it was. We also stuck a lavender flower head into one of the rectangle ones. That should be interesting!

Here you can see the caustic soda and water cooling in the pyrex jug. It gets very hot.

The olive oil and copha warming up.

Combining the two mixtures (caustic soda/water and olive oil/copha) - mixing - trying to arrive at trace. This is when we added the fragrance. It took another couple of minutes compared to last time and I stopped when it was still a little runny, not too thick.

We made a loofah soap!

Pouring the soap into the moulds; much easier than last time - it flowed smoothly.

In the moulds and ready to wrap in towels. This mixture is a totally different colour to last time - this is yellow; last batch was white. The only difference was the brand of oil I used.

There's not much to show for it but we also made 10 litres of washing liquid (for clothes). This pic shows bringing the mixture to the boil and the bottles of water waiting to be added.

It was a very productive weekend.

Hmmm

I finally bit the bullet, took the plunge - and made some soap today. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and during the week made sure I had everything I needed. I only had to buy silicon cake moulds in a suitable size.

No matter what method you read about making soap THERE ARE SO MANY WARNINGS - like this one:

Cover benchtops with newspaper and also put a layer of newspaper down on the floor in case of any splashes. If you get any splashes on benches etc wash area and then apply vinegar to neutralise. Wear safety goggles, rubber gloves, long sleeves/trousers and footwear http://www.australiansoapmaker.info/howto/cpsoap.htm

I used the Down to Earth cold pressed soap recipe found here:
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au/2007/07/how-to-make-cold-pressed-soap.html

Grease the moulds (with cooking spray).

Gather ingredients and measure out.

Prepare the utensils.

Heat the oil and copha to 50 degrees.

Add the caustic soda to the water and mix until it's dissolved. This mixture gets very hot very quickly and stays hot for a long time.

I used one of Sylvia's bowls to mix the two liquids.

It took a long time for the caustic soda/water mix to come back down to 50 degrees. I had to keep re-heating the oil mixture because it's temperature dropped more quickly.

We had some freshly delivered lamb for lunch; the tastiest lamb I've had in a very long time and there's quite a bit more that has to be put away this afternoon.

When the two mixtures were at 50 degrees I poured the caustic soda/water into the oil and started to mix with the stick blender. You have to reach "trace" - a thick custard consistency. I got there in around 4 minutes, much quicker than I had anticipated.

Gibbo grabbed the camera.

I think I mixed it too much because you're supposed to be able to pour it into the moulds but I had to use a measuring cup and it was thick and gluggy.

I poked each little mould shape with a spoon and picked the trays up and dropped them, hoping that any air bubbles were removed. I guess I won't know how successful that was until I pop the cake of soap out of the mould tomorrow.

I overfilled each mould and then ran a long flat knife over the top to get a reasonably smooth finish.

So there we are - 18 bars of homemade soap. I then wrapped both trays in towels and left them to set on the ping pong table. In the morning I'll take them out and leave them on wire racks to "cure", a process which takes 4-6 weeks. They'll be ready just in time for Christmas!

Observations:

I should have mixed the caustic soda and water first (instead of heating the oil first) because it took so much longer to cool down to 50 degrees. When it reaches around 55 the oils can be heated (and copha melted); that took no time at all to reach 50.

I'll stop mixing a bit sooner and try to have more of a pouring consistency. In hindsight I think I knew when I reached "trace" but kept going a bit longer "just in case". If you lift the mixer out of the soap and drizzle some across the surface it should leave a line - I took it a bit further and made it close to whipped cream consistency.

I put a bit of soap on my tongue to see if I got the little zap (like putting your tongue on a 9v battery). Yes, I did. I had suggested to Gibbo that he might do that but he reckoned I should be the one to test it since my taste buds are still not working properly since the operation. I was also a bit alarmed when a small cut on my finger started to sting once it got soap on it. This was when I was half way through the moulding up stage. Afterwards, I read this: 

The important thing to remember with making soap from scratch is that raw soap is caustic and can burn if you get it on your skin. 72 hours or so after being made and moulded, the chemical reaction (called saponification) should have mostly taken place and the soap should no longer be caustic and you can touch it with bare hands without any worries. Prior to this you should touch the soap only when wearing gloves else you may find it harsh on your hands. 

http://www.australiansoapmaker.info/howto/cpsoap.htm

So the soap is still caustic at the moulding up stage and doesn't lose that until some days into the saponification process. I didn't realise that beforehand - I thought that it lost the caustic content when mixed with the oil and I was a bit worried that I'd wasted a whole batch of ingredients and that when I came to test it (and give it away) it would still burn - but it appears that by the time it has cured all the bad bits will be gone and I'll have FABULOUS soap for our Christmas hampers!!

Feeling Industrious

I decided on Friday (just as I finished the last of the home made relish) that I'd do a bit of cooking on the weekend. The kids weren't coming home, Gibbo would be playing cricket, work was nearly up to date (with just the R&D stuff to make some sense of) and all I had to achieve was a ride, a bit of food shopping and some work at the farm.

Saturday we went to the farm; Gibbo fenced while I sprayed. I listened to and danced my way through two hours of songs on my ancient iPod - an original mini that came out so long ago I can't even remember! (I just googled it - released in 2004 but I think it was 2005 that they hit Australia). Meg was in Grade 12 and Drew was in Grade 7. I was in my early 40's and Gibbo was years off reaching 40!!! Geez Louise!! The kids have had several new models since then but I've stuck to old faithful (iPod and husband)!

After lunch I went for a ride; just 23km but into a wicked headwind on the way out which of course made me fly home. I did some intervals on the way back and worked hard then went off to Newton's Hill and rode up twice - 350m at 11% gradient. I made Gibbo come with me to stand guard at the top to let me know if anything was coming over the hill - it's a narrow road that has a long crest. He doesn't think I should do that anymore; thinks it's a bit dangerous - but at least I feel confident that I'll be able to handle the hills on the ride. I just need to keep getting miles into my legs between now and Sept 8. That idea wasn't helped during the week when the goat and I had another disagreement. She won again, this time by hitting me right on the hip bone. It hurt like crap and I think she hit a nerve because everything on my left side zinged all day and I skipped exercising altogether.

Last night we had Green and Gold wagyu for dinner with combination fried rice. We sat on the couch and watched NZ beat us in the rugby again; I fell asleep.

This morning Gibbo left early for Buderim for cricket; they are into the final. I spent the morning in the kitchen making tomato relish and strawberry jam. 1kg of tomatoes yielded 4 little jars of thicker than last time relish and 1/2kg of strawberries yielded two small jars. Just perfect quantities for us. The jam set so well I think I'll have to cut it with a knife!

I'm yet to make the home made lemonade using the lemons from the farm tree. That's a job for this afternoon. When I was last in Brisbane I had an incredibly fresh tasting lemonade/rosemary drink so I'm going to try to copy it.

I didn't have enough tomatoes from the home garden so had to buy some shop ones.

It's pretty thick!!

Cheesey

Meg and I went to another simple living workshop in the little town where we bought the farm. This time it was cheese-making. We learnt a lot, had an interesting "fermented" lunch and enjoyed being together.

It's such a lovely setting.

A selection of utensils and ingredients:

Here's some cheese brought along by the presenter. We had these for lunch. We passed the board around and all had a smell - they were very strong!

We learnt how to "make" the cheese - heating the milk, adding the starter and rennet, letting it sit then transferring it to a cloth or press - which all seemed quite easy. We prepared a brie and a cheddar as much as we could - the maturing process now has to kick in and that takes 4-6 weeks.

The Brie:

The Cheddar:

This one was really easy - Cottage Cheese that can be eaten same day as making. It was just a matter of separating curds and whey:

Lunch was provided by the presenter. It was a showcase of fermented foods, all home-made, from the sourdough bread right through to the dressing on the salad.

This is the lunch selection; all a little startling for the untrained palate! Three of the four cheeses brought along by the presenter:

Brie:

Cheddar:

I can't remember what this was called but it was a combination of grains, pulses and prunes:

Kimchi:

Sauerkraut:

Salad with Miso dressing added just before serving:

Meg's plate; note the slathering of butter!

There was wine:

After lunch we made butter, yoghurt and kefir which had a very strong biting taste but is apparently excellent for "the gut".

Churning the butter, 2012 style.

Washing the butter:

The finished product.

Meg fell asleep at about this point; I had to dig her in the ribs to wake her up.

It was a very informative day; I've read quite a lot about cheese making but to actually see the process helps me to understand it so much better. We bought a couple of tiny sachets of kefir culture and yoghurt starter; they're stored in the freezer for when we decide to try our own hand. We were both quite hungry (!) so it was good to come home to a Gibbo cooked meal of y-bone and veges, including fresh broccoli from the garden.