Grandmother's Soap Recipe

[GraceDarlingSoaps]

Dear Fellow Soapers, I am new to this forum, I am from Cape Town in South Africa, and thought I would share my Grandmother's soap recipe with you. She was born in the late 1800's and I have named my soapmaking after her. I assume what she calls Resin is Pine Resin? Your comments would be appreciated. I don't think I have the experience to try her recipe though. Does anyone have any idea why Borax would be used in the recipe? GraceDarlingSoaps

 

[Susie]

Borax was used to neutralize some of the excess lye. We have lye calculators now that give us precise weights so that step is no longer necessary.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

[Seawolfe]

Welcome welcome!!

As much as I love these old recipes, I know now that they were typically the type of soap used for laundry, household cleaning and dirty farmhands and maybe horses. It worked very well at cleaning but was not so gentle for faces, hair, body and hands that don't do as much manual labor.

If that were mine I would hang it on the wall to make me smile every time I saw it, but I would go right on making the kinder, gentler soaps of today

 

[DeeAnna]

I would love to have the recipe my grandmother used. I suspect it was right off the can of lye, though.

Took a look at this one -- if the "fat" was coconut oil or palm kernel, this recipe would work pretty well.

If you made soap in my grandmother's time here in the midwestern US, you would more likely use tallow, lard, or kitchen drippings as your soaping fats, and this recipe would be quite lye heavy if you used these fats instead. The borax would help some, but the soap would still be pretty harsh.

Every once in awhile we talk about the old recipes. Here are a couple of unusual ones:
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=41965
www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=45440

 

[mandy318]

This is so cool. Even if you probably shouldn't follow the recipe, how nice to know you are carrying on your grandmother's work. I have recipe books (for food, not soap) from both mine and my husband's grandmothers and I treasure them.

 

[GraceDarlingSoaps]

Thank you fellow soapers for your comments. I remember her bathing me as a child with the most beautiful Pear's Soap, so this was probably a household or laundry soap recipe.
GraceDarlingSoaps

 

[CaraBou]

That is a very cool page. Hang on to the nostalgia! I have handwritten food recipes from my grandmother that I'll never throw away. Some of them make the best food I've ever eaten, and some would clog my arteries. But all are precious. Frame her soap recipe and progress the legacy with modern beautiful soap! Though I will say, if you end up wanting to try it after you've got the basics of soap making down, please re-post here so we can help you do it in the safest way possible. That is our number one goal.

Welcome to the Forum, Grace Darling's granddaughter!