best way to make soap with goat's milk?

[punkflash54]

I was at a local farmers market this morning and i picked up some goat's milk to try making soap with. i dont want to burn the milk so what is the best way to make soap with it? should i use it instead of water? or should i just add some at trace?

 

[Half Caper Farm]

If you do a search on "goat's milk", you'll find all kinds of threads on the subject.

Some people do a 50% milk, mixing the lye with the water, then, I believe, adding the milk at trace.

I do 100% goat's milk, as I have my own goats, and more milk than I know what to do with! So, I measure out the amount I need, and freeze it solid ahead of time (I fill up a few containers and just leave them in the freezer). When I'm ready to make soap, I take the frozen milk out first, and put it in my lye container (a pyrex pot) to let it soften a little bit. Then I measure out my other ingredients and melt my oils and butters, and put them aside to cool. I measure out my lye, then slowly pour it onto the frozen milk, a little bit at a time. As the top of the milk melts, I scrape it off and keep stirring that, while adding a bit more lye. Eventually, I have a hollow chunk of milk ice, floating in milk/lye, that I can break up (carefully, so it doesn't splash!). I keep stirring it while it melts - the milk turns a pale shade of yellow - until it gets up to the temperature, or close to it, of the oils - around 85 -90 F. I had been putting the pot into a sink full of cold water and ice, but found it was staying too cold. Once the two are reasonably close in temperature, I mix them together and stickblend to trace.

Hope that helps. 8)

eta: that's frozen MILK, not soap :shock:

 

[IrishLass]

what is the best way to make soap with it?

Whichever way you are most comfortable with and works best for you.

As Half Caper Farm said, if you do a search on "goat's milk", you'll find all kinds of threads on the subject. And you'll also find many different techniques as well.

Here's the technique I use (I personally choose to use this particular technique because I'm one of those persnickety soapers that passionately hates adding my lye to milk) :wink: :

I use the 'split method' where I mix the lye with 50% of my liquid amount as water, and then add the rest of my liquid amount as fresh, refrigerated goat milk to my oils (stickblending it in well). That will make a 50% goat milk soap. If I want to make a 100% goat milk soap, I do the same, but I add enough goat milk powder to the fresh goat milk to equal a 100% concentration (and then stickblend it to my oils). My goat milk soaps always come out a creamy, off-white color doing it this way, even when gelled (unless I add honey to them or a discoloring FO).

IrishLass

 

[Jezzy]

I split the liquids too 1/2 water 1/2 goats milk added at trace. I haven't dared to do 100% gm yet

 

[steffm]

I froze my milk until it was slushy. I slowly added the lye and stirred slowly. It came out beautifully!

 

[punkflash54]

awesome thanks for the help. yeah i was thinking of freezing the milk. i may try half water and half milk first just to try it out. the last time i used milk-it was a can of condensed milk(the recipe called for it) and i burnt the heck out of the soap...the middle of my loaf was chunky and jelly like

 

[brianhood]

I use 100% goats milk and find that when adding caustic soad to the frozen goats milk it is best to sit the container containing the goats milk in an "ice bath" and to add the caustic (lye) tiny amounts at a time and stirring the iced goats milk/lye mix all the time until all the lye has been incorporated into the milk. then simply add the lye solution to the oil as normal and blend. this ensures a good result