when you start weighing your oil, lye, and water do you weigh the superfat also in your calculation? my superfat will be high I plan on making a bait soap about 20-25% 5lbs oil 1lb superfat another question is can you add the superfat at the start of the process when melting the oils before you add the lye water? As you can tell I'm new here so all help will be welcomed Thanks
adding superfats?
- Thread starter ronnie
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tryanything
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Are you hot processing or cold processing? If cold processing soap, it doesn't matter what you use as your superfat or when you add it. The lye monster is still very active and will react with whatever fats (oils) are in the pot. So your "superfat" will most likely end up being a mix of whatever oils are in the pot. So for cold process I just add all my oils in and use a soap calculator to determine how much of each for a give superfat. If you are hot processing, you can add oils after it has cooked and they will most likely remain unaltered since the soap has saponified. If you really want to make sure a certain oil is the superfat and unaltered by the lye, this is probably your best method.
Which method will you be using to make the soap - cold process or hot process? If you're using cold process, you start the batch with all the oil called for in the recipe. Not to cloud the issue, but an exception would be if you reserved a small amount of oil to mix with a certain colorant. But for what you are asking, use all the oil up front. The lye will take whatever it wants over the next few hours or days as saponification occurs. The oil it doesn't react with will become the superfatted part. In hot process, some people add a special oil (meaning more expensive usually) at the end of the cooking process as a superfat. I don't know if it actually ends up being the oil that the lye doesn't react with, but it makes sense tha it would be.
What is bait soap?
If you are a beginner I would strongly recommend that you start with a smaller batch size, usually 2 pounds total weight of oils.
Yes, your superfat is weighed and calculated and added at the beginning of the process. Some people prefer to add oils after the cook with HP but I have never found that it makes a difference. Use a good lye calculator and enter your desired superfat in the spot for it and it will discount your lye amount accordingly.
If you are a beginner I would strongly recommend that you start with a smaller batch size, usually 2 pounds total weight of oils.
Yes, your superfat is weighed and calculated and added at the beginning of the process. Some people prefer to add oils after the cook with HP but I have never found that it makes a difference. Use a good lye calculator and enter your desired superfat in the spot for it and it will discount your lye amount accordingly.
