Can you guys help with current cook (still on the stove!) - what is going on?

[Saltynuts]

So this is borage seed oil. I just had some laying around and wanted to get rid of it. What better way than to make a very bad soap!!

Anyways, I definitely used more water than I was supposed to. Like the soapcalc recipe called for 77 grams, I used close to 100 grams. No problem, I can let the soap sit for 2 months to evaporate the water/cure.

So I started with a stick blender after adding water/lye mix to oil (which is cooking in a beaker inside a crock pot, with water around the beaker, just easier that way I find). And very quickly I got it looking like the first picture below.

Then, yall taught me not too stick blend too much. So I stopped with the stick blender, and started using just a thin wood skewer (I think I got them from Dollar Tree or some place for $1 or something like that). Well, pretty soon, the mix had gotten thin again! Like the second attached picture! No trace ANYWHERE, no matter how much I stirred with the wood skewer. It was almost like water. And when I do the zap test ZAP still very live1

So I got out the stick blender and used it again. And low and behold, it got back to looking like the first picture again. But ZAP, still very live, the cook is not even close to being done.

Anyways, what the heck is happening? And what the heck should I do now? I just want to complete the cook.

Thanks for any help!!!

 

[Saltynuts]

Just went downstairs and stirred a bunch more with the stick (after having used the blender many minutes ago), and a picture is below - it does not seem to be reducing to the "wattery" mix again, staying more solid. But it still is very live with the ZAP test. Its weird, I watch youtube videos and see you all post about your cooks taking like 20 or 30 minutes or something like that, but I am 1.5 hours in and ZAP test shows it is still not even close to being fully cooked. I have the crock pot on high, so its not cold by any stretch...

Thanks!

 

[Saltynuts]

Well, I pulled the plug, probably close to 2 hours of cooking, I just poured it into some molds after some more mixing. If you look carefully at the pic below, you can see liquid coming out of the more dense "soap", I dunno whether that is water or what, but it can't be good.

 

[akseattle]

@Saltynuts , I've never made hot process soap so can't really help. I'm wondering, with HP, are you supposed to keep cooking until it no longer zaps?
I thought the batter in your first photo looked the best. Thick and creamy like a medium trace in cold process soap. Do you use the same or a different kind of lye that is use in CP? Or why couldn't you just have left it and let it saponify while you slept? Like we do in CP?

 

[lsg]

I usually cook until the soap reaches the "Vaseline" stage. If you have used a lye calculator and weighed all ingredients correctly, then your soap should be OK to use. I let my HP soaps set for at least a couple of weeks before using.
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/how-long-to-cook-hot-process-soap.71157/

 

[AliOop]

Sorry you had to go through this, @Saltynuts.

FYI, the advice about not blending too much doesn't apply when the soap won't stay emulsified. An ~30% excess of water such as you added can definitely cause difficulties with keeping the soap together. When it separates like that, the answer is to keep blending until it comes together and stays together.

Keeping it on the heat helps, too, by evaporating some of the water. By using a double-boiler instead of a crockpot, or a pot directly on the stove, you probably didn't have enough heat to cook it as fast as you'd otherwise expect.

If your bars are still separated like that in the mold, put it all back into a stainless pot on the stove, turned on low, and get it nice and melty again. Then stickblend it together and make sure it stays together before you mold it again.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Saltynuts]

Thank you AliOop, lsg and akseattle!

Heard loud and clear AliOop, will try again tweaking things up per your suggestion and post my results! Thanks!!!