Full cream whole milk.

[SMGK23]

Hi. I have access to full cream whole milk (fresh from the cow). I've googled and searched this forum but can't seem to find an answer to my question. Should I skim off the cream before using the milk or should I mix well and use both? My gut is telling me to skim off as much of the cream as I can before using the milk. Would my inkling be correct?

 

[ackosel]

Hi. I have access to full cream whole milk (fresh from the cow). I've googled and searched this forum but can't seem to find an answer to my question. Should I skim off the cream before using the milk or should I mix well and use both? My gut is telling me to skim off as much of the cream as I can before using the milk. Would my inkling be correct?

Hi, lucky you to have access to such lovely milk! Do you know what breed of cow the milk comes from?

I would leave the cream well-mixed in and use all that creamy goodness in your soap. I use whole, fresh goat milk in my soap and it's lovely. I think you'll love the results from using full-fat milk in your soap.

 

[DeeAnna]

Either way is fine. Just understand the cream will raise the superfat a bit if you use it in your soap.

In the US, what we call "whole milk" is 3.5% milkfat. If used as a full replacement for water, the whole milk would raise the superfat in my recipes by about 1%.

So if you have a rough idea of the milkfat content in your milk, you can tweak the superfat if you want.

 

[Kcryss]

I grew up drinking raw milk and it was such a treat when mom would let us have the cream from the top! You're very lucky! Enjoy the soap with our without the cream!

 

[ackosel]

Either way is fine. Just understand the cream will raise the superfat a bit if you use it in your soap.

In the US, what we call "whole milk" is 3.5% milkfat. If used as a full replacement for water, the whole milk would raise the superfat in my recipes by about 1%.

So if you have a rough idea of the milkfat content in your milk, you can tweak the superfat if you want.

Thank you for that information, @DeeAnna. That makes me braver soaping at lower superfat using whole goat milk at around 4% milkfat.

 

[SMGK23]

Thanks everyone for the info much appreciated. It's Jersey cows. I did scoop off some of the cream as I assumed it will impact the fat content. I did find that they were quite a bit softer and stickier to get out of the molds and as such caused some texuring in the surface. But I smoothed it out eaisly.Will leave it for 48 hour next time instead of 24 and see if it makes a difference. Can't wait to use them. Having so much fun.

 

[Ekuzo]

I used to buy low fat cow milk to make sure it affects my SF as little as possible, but you can always use higher (no matter the %) and lower your SF accordingly, as advised above. No matter what you choose - to use the cream or to leave it out - you'll make good soap

 

[DeeAnna]

Thank you for that information, @DeeAnna. That makes me braver soaping at lower superfat using whole goat milk at around 4% milkfat.

You can use a soap recipe c@lculator to figure out how the superfat changes in response to adding some milkfat without compensating for this added fat. This is an easy way to learn what the added milkfat will do to your recipe. This is what I do when I have questions like this rather than just guessing --

Create your recipe without any "milkfat" weight. Write down that NaOH weight for this "no-milkfat" version of your recipe.

Estimate the milkfat percentage in the milk you want to use. You mentioned 4% so let's use that as an example.

Decide how much milk you want to use -- anything up to the total water weight. Assume your recipe calls for 372 g water. If you replace all the water with milk, then you'd use 372 g milk.

Milkfat weight = Milk weight X Milkfat% / 100

Milkfat weight = 372 g X 4 / 100 = 14.9 g

Enter the milkfat weight into your recipe. Note the new NaOH weight for this revised recipe -- this weight should have gone up a bit compared with the no-milkfat version.

Increase the superfat % for this recipe a small bit at a time. Keep tweaking the superfat % until the NaOH weight is equal to the no-milkfat NaOH weight.

That's the superfat for your new recipe if you don't compensate for the milkfat present in the milk you're using.