Accelerated pomace

[Phantomina]

Hi y'all
Yesterday I made a soap using pomace olive oil for the first time and noticed it accelerated a lot, while my lye was at 35%.
So I was wondering if putting the lye at 32% or less would give me time to play, or it is as it is, playing with percentage won't do much.

 

[Ford]

Hi, yes, pomace olive oil is known to accelerate trace. If you want time to play. Use Regular or extra virgin olive oil.

 

[Phantomina]

Hi, yes, pomace olive oil is known to accelerate trace. If you want time to play. Use Regular or extra virgin olive oil.

Yes, I usually use other olive oils, just tried the pomace. I understand it accelerates, just wondering if adding water slows it down a bit.

 

[AliensrReal]

Are you using the stick blender? If so I wouldn’t use it and just hand stir. Adding more water might help.

 

[Phantomina]

Had to test it. So I used same recipe that had 35%lye, this time I did 32%, and it worked,gave me plenty of time, unlike yesterday. I also went down from 45°C to around 37°C.
Hope it helps someone.

 

[Phantomina]

Are you using the stick blender? If so I wouldn’t use it and just hand stir. Adding more water might help.

I start with blender, finish off with stiring

 

[KiwiMoose]

Had to test it. So I used same recipe that had 35%lye, this time I did 32%, and it worked,gave me plenty of time, unlike yesterday. I also went down from 45°C to around 37°C.
Hope it helps someone.

I reckon it was probably the lower temperature that helped.

 

[Teresa1]

I'm a new soap maker. I tried a swirl design cold process soap recipe using olive oil pomace. It accelerated the trace so much I had to spoon the soap in the mold, it got very thick. I have used regular olive oil before and didn't have this problem before. I had bought two gallons of olive oil pomace because it was a good price. One member suggests to reduce the percentage of lye the recipe calls for. Let's say the lye calculator calls for 3.10 oz of sodium hydroxide and 6.94 oz. of distilled water, how do I calculate the percentage I need to reduce of sodium hydroxide in the recipe?

 

[AliOop]

I'm a new soap maker. I tried a swirl design cold process soap recipe using olive oil pomace. It accelerated the trace so much I had to spoon the soap in the mold, it got very thick. I have used regular olive oil before and didn't have this problem before. I had bought two gallons of olive oil pomace because it was a good price. One member suggests to reduce the percentage of lye the recipe calls for. Let's say the lye calculator calls for 3.10 oz of sodium hydroxide and 6.94 oz. of distilled water, how do I calculate the percentage I need to reduce of sodium hydroxide in the recipe?

1. Pomace OO often accelerates terribly - sad but true.

2. Reducing the amount of lye doesn't typically slow down trace, but if you want to give that a go, simply increase the superfat.

3. I'm pretty sure the person was suggesting that you reduce the lye concentration, not the lye. Another way to say this is to increase the water. So for instance, if you were using a 33% lye concentration, try 30%. Be sure you are not using water-as-percent-of-oils; select the lye concentration setting instead.

4. Look for other ways to slow down trace. The two primary ways are to use cooler temperatures for lye and oils, and don't stickblend as much. You might also eliminate or reduce the amount of fast-tracing oils in your recipe, whether that is pomace OO, butters, castor oil, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Teresa1]

Thank you, I will try your suggestion and report back