Evaporated Goats Milk

[Jersey Girl]

I made two batches of soap yesterday using evaporated goats milk using the split method. It worked beautifully. I didn’t avoid gel, in fact the batch with the purple and green got quite hot and developed a little crack before I got it to a cooler place. My question is is the evaporated milk more prone to being darker in the final soap than fresh milk in a carton? The second pic I colored the swirly part with some TD but the base color is un-colored. It’s quite dark. The first pic

with the green and purple I used TD in the base color. I love the look of those soapers goats milk soap that’s nice and light and creamy colored but I know if I’m not going to avoid gel I probably won’t get close to that. I definitely don’t have any freezer room but I could make refrigerator room. But I understand even in the refrigerator you could get a partial gel which I definitely don’t want. I guess my question is is the evaporated milk the reason this looks so dark?

 

[atiz]

I think it can be... Have you tried the same recipe without the evaporated milk? Sometimes certain oils can also darken the batter a bit, if they are yellow/green/whatever.
They are really pretty soaps! I especially like the 2nd one .

 

[Jersey Girl]

I think it can be... Have you tried the same recipe without the evaporated milk? Sometimes certain oils can also darken the batter a bit, if they are yellow/green/whatever.
They are really pretty soaps! I especially like the 2nd one .

Thank you! Yes, I have used these particular oils a lot but I usually use color. There is a fair amount of lard, coconut oil oil and Palm which should make a decently white bar. The evaporated milk is a tannish color. I imagine fresh milk is lighter. The evaporated milk is so easy though because it’s concentrated and if you do the split method it works out to whole milk without the freezing and all that mess . I need to get my hands on some Fresh to try though. I can never find it in our grocery stores. I think I read that Trader Joe’s sells it though so I’ll try there when I venture out again.

 

[shunt2011]

Yes, evaporated goats milk is darker but my soap is usually fairly light. Plus if it got too hot so,e of the sugars could have burned a bit causing it to get darker.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Yes, evaporated goats milk is darker but my soap is usually fairly light. Plus if it got too hot so,e of the sugars could have burned a bit causing it to get darker.

The plainer one didn’t get super hot for some reason although it did gel. The swirled one did get real hot and even developed a small crack but I caught it in time and moved it to a cool spot. I guess I need to try the fridge with one and see the difference and soap a bit cooler. I soaped in the high 90s. I’ve never soaped At room temp as I usually use a lot of hard oils and am worried about false trace.

 

[TheGecko]

Thank you! Yes, I have used these particular oils a lot but I usually use color. There is a fair amount of lard, coconut oil oil and Palm which should make a decently white bar. The evaporated milk is a tannish color. I imagine fresh milk is lighter. The evaporated milk is so easy though because it’s concentrated and if you do the split method it works out to whole milk without the freezing and all that mess . I need to get my hands on some Fresh to try though. I can never find it in our grocery stores. I think I read that Trader Joe’s sells it though so I’ll try there when I venture out again.

I started with Evaporated Goat Milk, I froze it and my Distilled Water and use 50/50 in an ice batch (add a little salt to keep the ice bath colder). Add a little bit of lye at a time and don’t let the lye solution get above 70F. Keep it cool and you’ll have a creamy soap.

You can find goat milk in the health food section of your local grocery store (just ask); that is what I am using until I get fresh goat milk again. It comes in quart cartons and I just freeze the whole carton and then modified my recipe to use the whole carton. I just chop it in three chunks and again use an ice bath. While I’m mixing the lye solution, I measure and melt my hands oils and then add my soft oils (about six pounds total). Since I don’t color my GMS, I mix to about a medium trace, weigh out what I need for my mold, and scent and pour. Now that the weather is warming up, I’ll be putting my covered molds in the frig. After 24 hours, I take it out and bring it up to room temp and then unmold. Give it an hour, cut, tray it, and on a shelf in the garage it goes.

 

[penelopejane]

Thank you! Yes, I have used these particular oils a lot but I usually use color. There is a fair amount of lard, coconut oil oil and Palm which should make a decently white bar. The evaporated milk is a tannish color. I imagine fresh milk is lighter. The evaporated milk is so easy though because it’s concentrated and if you do the split method it works out to whole milk without the freezing and all that mess . I need to get my hands on some Fresh to try though. I can never find it in our grocery stores. I think I read that Trader Joe’s sells it though so I’ll try there when I venture out again.

You can still do the split method with plain milk and add powdered GM to it to turn the water in you lye mix into milk. Hope that makes sense.
milk going dark usually means it got a bit hot.But I soap at 110 and my GM soaps don’t go darker. Have you tried adding your milk to the oils and then adding the lye and no hotter than 110*F. I don’t put milk soaps in the fridge or freezer. I cover and wrap them!

 

[Jersey Girl]

You can still do the split method with plain milk and add powdered GM to it to turn the water in you lye mix into milk. Hope that makes sense.
milk going dark usually means it got a bit hot.But I soap at 110 and my GM soaps don’t go darker. Have you tried adding your milk to the oils and then adding the lye and no hotter than 110*F. I don’t put milk soaps in the fridge or freezer. I cover and wrap them!

Thank you! Yes, makes perfect sense. Ive been wanting to use the powdered mik but havent found it in stores around here lately. Couldn’t even get it at Walmart online (which is where I ordered the evaporated from). Even regular fresh GM is very hard to find around here. Might try Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s today but Im wary of going anywhere anymore (NJ has been hit hard by the virus and I’m just so anxious about it). I do add the milk to the oils and soap around 100. One thing I did was put it on a heating pad and insulate, which I do with all my soaps but I watch them like a hawk. I only had it on low this time. Next time I could try skipping the heating pad. The powdered milk is definitely on my long list of things I want to try when I can get some.

 

[shunt2011]

I do the split method PJ speaks of as well as adding powdered. I only mix my lye with water these days or aloe juice.

 

[Jersey Girl]

I do the split method PJ speaks of as well as adding powdered. I only mix my lye with water these days or aloe juice.

I’m with you on that. So far I’ve only used water or AJ in the lye. I’m not keen on the process of freezing milk, etc. Too much work! Lol

 

[mtinetti61]

What is the split method?

 

[Jersey Girl]

It’s where you divide the liquid needed for the recipe in half. 1/2 is plain water and will be mixed with the lye. It must be at least equal to the amount of the lye for it to dissolve though. The other half of the liquid ( oat milk, goats milk, cows milk, etc) is added to the oils before the lye solution is added. when adding milks this helps prevent scorching. When doing this, the half that is used for mixing the lye dilutes the milk product so some people add powdered milk enough to bring the concentration up to 100%. Not sure I explained this well. Hope it helps. If you do a search on split method you’ll find lots of post about it.

 

[mtinetti61]

Thanks! I have made GM soap many times and it always turns out a medium to dark tan, which I don't mind. I have done split method but didn't know it was called that. did learn a few things on this thread that I'm going to try. Yes an old soaper can learn new tricks, LOL.....

 

[Sauboon]

You can still do the split method with plain milk and add powdered GM to it to turn the water in you lye mix into milk. Hope that makes sense.
milk going dark usually means it got a bit hot.But I soap at 110 and my GM soaps don’t go darker. Have you tried adding your milk to the oils and then adding the lye and no hotter than 110*F. I don’t put milk soaps in the fridge or freezer. I cover and wrap them!

You can also freeze the milk in ice trays.
Put the cubes in your container aloneg with 1 ounce of water and gradually pour lye on top while stirring until it all melts. I use this method and my soap never turns dark.

 

[Jersey Girl]

You can also freeze the milk in ice trays.
Put the cubes in your container aloneg with 1 ounce of water and gradually pour lye on top while stirring until it all melts. I use this method and my soap never turns dark.

I think I need to try the frozen method with the evaporated milk as much as I’ve tried to avoid it, lol. Just to see the difference.

 

[Sally Scheibner]

Ordered from amazon the meyerberger dehydrated goat milk and can’t wait to make GM soap.

 

[Sauboon]

I think I need to try the frozen method with the evaporated milk as much as I’ve tried to avoid it, lol. Just to see the difference.

I've never tried evaporated milk in soap before but try it. Sometimes experimenting leads to nice discoveries. When I use the ice cube method my soap is not a white color. It is more a caramel color. But it's nice.

 

[TheGecko]

is not a white color.

No soap will be naturally 'white' color...you can come close by use light colored oils/butters.

 

[TheGecko]

I think I need to try the frozen method with the evaporated milk as much as I’ve tried to avoid it, lol. Just to see the difference.

It's not that big of a deal. All you need is a single standard ice tray per can of milk. What I don't use, I put in bags in the freezer.

Something I was just thinking for anyone using evaporated goat milk and getting a tan shade of soap...are you substituting 100%? If you look at the directions on the can it's supposed to be mixed 50-50 with water to get 'regular' goat milk. As an example, for my 2lb mold, my recipe calls for 8.48 oz of water. So I would use 4.24 oz of water and 4.24 oz of evaporated goat milk.

 

[Jersey Girl]

It's not that big of a deal. All you need is a single standard ice tray per can of milk. What I don't use, I put in bags in the freezer.

Something I was just thinking for anyone using evaporated goat milk and getting a tan shade of soap...are you substituting 100%? If you look at the directions on the can it's supposed to be mixed 50-50 with water to get 'regular' goat milk. As an example, for my 2lb mold, my recipe calls for 8.48 oz of water. So I would use 4.24 oz of water and 4.24 oz of evaporated goat milk.

Yes, that’s how I do it (50/50). basically reconstituting it.