Crumbly Soap

[Sunkawakan]

Can someone please help me (hope the pic turns out). I'm doing cphp and it seems every batch (no matter what recipe) turns crumbly. Its not smooth when I pour it, it never seems to get past the applesauce stage (have stirred and cooked up to an hour).

Any suggestions?

 

[TheSoapyEwe]

Could you post the recipe you're using so we could take a look?

Also,
I used to have the same problem it would go to the applesauce stage and then just dry up, never got to the vaseline stage at all..I noticed that it usually happened when I used a spoon to stir, I now use a wisk and beat the crap outa it about every 20 minutes or so and have never had that problem since

 

[Sunkawakan]

Here are one of the recipes I've used and the same things happen. The only difference between this one and the other is 16 oz of tallow (which I think gives a different lye/water amt on soapcalc)

Water 12.16 oz
Lye - NaOH 4.205
Lard 50 16
Olive 16

Vaseline stage? Pic?

Any help is very much appreciated.

 

[Guest]

It looks like it might be overcooked .

 

[Dixie]

I never stir. I bring to trace and then turn my cp on low, put the lid on and leave it alone! When the island disapears I let it cook about 10 min. longer, do a zap test. If it still zaps I cook another 10 min. and test again. untill I no longer get zapped.
It may very well be over cooked. Sorry you had trouble.

 

[ChrissyB]

With CP soap, crumbly soap generally means lye heavy.

 

[Maria]

HP is crumbly if over cooked.

 

[Sunkawakan]

I think I figured out the problem. I THINK (we'll know for sure next week when I rebatch some of the crubly stuff) I was under cooking the batches.

Last night I did 2 batches (the 1st one worked perfectly and I was sooo excited I did a second to see if I could duplicate) of OO soap. During the 1st batch I let it come to trace, cooked until the island went away, stirred, cooked again until the island went away, turned off heat and stirred and let it cool and it blended nicely giving me a really smooth wonderful soap.

The second batch I did the same thing up to the second island going away. I stirred after that and it was still in the applesauce stage and kinda thin. This is the point I was pouring (almost litterally) the crumbly batches thinking they would smooth out. Anyway, I put the batch back on the heat and let it cook until the island was gone again and it seemed drier this time so I took it out, stirred and ... wal la! smoothed out beautifullly and its probably the best soap I've EVER made.

So..... for anyone new out there - in my opinion impatients is your worst enemy!

I'm so proud! 5 lbs last night in less than 4 - I just LOVE cphp.[/u][/i]

 

[Maria]

I have never under cooked soap but if you poured when it looked like applesauce, you are probably right. I do the zap test after it turns translucent. If it is not zappy, it is done.
It really doesn't take very long to go through the stages. Maybe my heat is higher than some. I also stir a lot. Once you get how it is supposed to look, you will know for future batches.

 

[MikeInPdx]

I'm one of those impatient souls who does CPHP on HIGH and watches it like a hawk.....don't enjoy cleaning up molten soap volcanoes

I've never had a problem with undercooking or crumbly batches.

 

[Sunkawakan]

I'm one of those impatient souls who does CPHP on HIGH and watches it like a hawk.....

I'm the same way, but a word for those new to cphp - it won't cook any faster if you stand there, head propped on your hands bent over the sink staring at it and lifting the lid every 10 seconds. Your back will get sore, your hands will go numb, but it still won't cook any faster. I've tried this and trust me, it just doesn't cook any faster. Pacing doesn't help either. Nor does starting a load of laundry then peeking, petting the dogs for seemingly forever (a whole 10 seconds of course), or even setting up for the next batch. If cphp has taught me nothing else its been patients - of course I didn't figure this out until last night after umpteen failed batches lol!