Do Your Lard Soaps Gel?

[Judiraz]

I just started making lard soaps about 5 weeks ago. I haven't had one batch gel yet! Is that normal?

 

[Dorymae]

Mine do but it is hot here, hasn't been under 100 in weeks. What are you doing to encourage gel?

 

[Seawolfe]

Mine do, but I put my high lard or OO soaps Under cover and sometimes on a whelping mat to help them along.

 

[commoncenz]

It's hit or miss with me. All my recipes contain lard and I Insulate with a couple of towels. Sometimes they gel and sometimes they don't. Lately however, I've noticed that while the soap underneath my top layer feels like vaseline, I never see the gel appear on top. I kinda "gently" felt the top of a couple of batches with my index finger that seemed to get hot, but didn't show gelling on top.

 

[shunt2011]

Mine all gel. I generally just wrap them well in some towels. I have wood molds with silicone liners and wooden lids. But, I always use a milk in my soaps so that likely helps too.

 

[Susie]

Mine gel. I place another mold upside down over mine to protect the top, then wrap the whole thing in a folded beach towel. Matter of fact, I have to watch mine to prevent overheating. I often find that mine need unwrapping for a short while somewhere in the first four hours.

 

[Yooper]

I gel almost all of my soaps (except for milk soaps I want white and not beige/tan).

 

[DeeAnna]

It depends on your mold shape and size too. If your soap is in individual bar molds or in a slab mold, it will not gel as easily as it will in a loaf mold. Larger loaf molds gel easier than smaller ones.

My soaps usually gel in my loaf molds; each of my molds is large enough to hold about 3 lb of fats. My slab mold is sized to hold the same amount of fats, but soap in it doesn't gel nearly as easily.

I did three batches this past week that contained 60% to 75% lard, and all three gelled. I covered them lightly with a tea towel and set them close to each other on the stove-top grates. One (the 75% lard recipe) even started to crack slightly, so I pulled it out, uncovered it, and put a fan on it for a bit until it cooled down. The air temperature was about 80 deg F.

In the cooler months (fall, winter, spring), I often put the molds in my oven to finish saponifying. Lately I haven't even been warming the oven -- just the heat from a couple of batches of saponifying soap is enough to push the soap into gel.

 

[Judiraz]

DeeAnn, that's probably the answer. I generally don't gel my milk soaps and lately I've switched to either a 1# loaf or very small slab for my "experiments". I got tired of too much ugly soap .

I probably don't have enough mass to generate the heat to get these smaller molds gelling. Thanks for the thought.

 

[Susie]

Yup, that's the answer. I use a loaf pan also that holds 32 oz oil batches.(3 lb total)