Making Soap with Lye and Lard
We recently hosted a soapmaking class at our temporary residence in Denver. Our friend Arthur from the Denver Urban Homesteading Group shows us how to make soap using lye, lard and coconut oil with some essential oil scents and turmeric spice for color.
WARNING: Arthur has been doing this for many years. He was nervous about being on camera and in front of a small “class” so forgot to put on eye protection and gloves. Please ALWAYS wear eye protection and gloves. Lye is very caustic and can burn your skin or cause blindness if it gets into your eyes. Humans have been working with lye made from ashes and mixed with animal fat for hundreds or thousands of years, but I’m sure more than a few of them were injured in the process. Let’s use modern tools like safety glasses and rubber gloves to our advantage.
Making soap with lye and lard turned out to be a heck of a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was certainly easier than my cheesemaking adventures, and I quickly decided to try my own batch of soap (seen in this video on my other site). But I have to admit we had the benefit of store-bought lye, store-bought lard, electric scales, an electric mixer…
If I had to make my own lye by dripping water through wood ashes, collect my own lard from butchering animals, saving bacon grease and rendering the fat… I suppose it wouldn’t seem so easy.
Making Homemade Soap with Lye and Lard:
Oh yes, soapmaking is definitely easier than cheese! I’ve thought about making my own lye too but can’t track down an affordable water tight wood barrel. Any suggestions?
That is so strange — I was thinking of making soap as I fell asleep last night. I’ve never tried it, but it would be a good use for those wood ashes I never find a good use for, and the bit of fat in deer meat.
Thanks for the great video as I was not able to attend. I am wondering if you know how to make glyserin soap too? My family can’t use lye soaps.
Thanks,
Julie
Go to your favorite bookstore or Amazon and get “The Foxfire Book”, the first of the Foxfire series. It has instructions on making your lye by dripping wood ashes, and I don’t recall them using a water-tight barrel. It continues on using the lye to make soap from lard.
Anyone serious about off-grid living should have the entire Foxfire series at hand for reference. I love the series, as my family is from that part of the world where the book was put together. And, my mother grew up off-grid by necessity (in poverty in 1930s Alabama), and they butchered hogs and made soap from the lard with these very techniques.
Woody, actually I own the entire series and subscribe to their magazine to this day. You’re right about it being a great resource. But you’re wrong about the water and the barrel. You need to drip water through the wood ashes to get the lye.
Folks:
This guy takes soap-making and turns it into some kind of science experiment! … I’ve been making my own (bar) soap for over 15 years, and the process has NEVER been presented as this complicated or “mathematical”. … It’s just SOAP!
… The kind that I make is “pure tallow”, so I don’t use (pork) lard. I use (beef) tallow and get a nice, brittle, hard, white soap that lasts for months. I don’t add ANY vegetable oils (including coconut) to my recipe. Lather is an addiction and an indulgence, not a necessity. Tallow soap (i.e. PURE tallow soap!) doesn’t “foam” – there are ONLY 2 ingredients: beef fat and lye. ONE volume measurement for each ingredient and just monitor the temperature. That’s IT! KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). — Patrick
um… you should add the scent at the very end… or else you will cook out the scent… you should put the scent into the soap AFTER it traces…
@ Amanda, um…. we’ve made several batches this way and are always happy with the results, including scent. I will, however, try your way next time. Perhaps the scent will be stronger and we can get away with less essential oils.
They had a hopper that was used for dumping in the ashes after cleaning out the fire place wood stoves etc…when filled they would add water and let it sit for a little bit to draw the lye acid out of the ashes.. then they would use glass jugs to drain the lye out through a tube that was unfastened.. never leave lye in a metal hopper it will eat through the thing fast enough. I am going to make my start in soap making soon enough we go through a lot with a few kids that love to stay clean. Need to find the best fragrances for the men though! Ladies are good to please with roses and lavender.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING DUDE NOT WEARING GLOVES OR EYE PROTECTION????? NOT A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR FELLOW VIEWER AND FIRST TIME SOAPER TO FOLLOW!!!
Very good point Pattie. I have updated the post with a warning.
Nov 26th, 2009 at 7:02 am
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Dec 31st, 2009 at 6:15 pm
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Mar 13th, 2010 at 2:38 am
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