HELP!! Chunks of lye in HP?

[Dawni]

See the small bits on top edge, and a bigger bit nearer the whisk? Are those lye chunks?? I'll edit with my recipe once I stop panicking lol but I used frozen coconut milk as water replacement and 2.5:1 lye ratio..

It's a high coconut recipe, no salt and it advanced pretty fast. As of typing this it now looks like this even with heat off.

Still see the chunks? I assume if it was unmelted butters it should have dissolved by now.

RECIPE:

What do I do now that it's technically done??? Thank you in advance

If I turn the heat back on will it eventually melt? Water it down and strain it and cook more? Or should I let it harden somewhat, grate it all and rebatch? Or is there no hope for this lol

Edited to add the recipe. I stopped panicking since I figured even if the rest of the soap cooked properly, no way I'll be able to do anything about this right now haha

 

[shunt2011]

Are you sure it's lye? I can't tell from your picture That's one reason I don't use frozen milk. I dissolve my lye in water 1:1 then add the difference in milk / milk powder to equal full milk to my oils. Plus I don't have the patience to add my lye to frozen stuff. I also strain my lye as I'm adding it to my oils if in doubt.

If you're sure it's lye there's not much you can do. I would toss it. Chunks of lye aren't a good thing. Not going to be able to dissolve it.

 

[Dawni]

Are you sure it's lye? I can't tell from your picture That's one reason I don't use frozen milk. I dissolve my lye in water 1:1 then add the difference in milk / milk powder to equal full milk to my oils. Plus I don't have the patience to add my lye to frozen stuff. I also strain my lye as I'm adding it to my oils if in doubt.

Nope, not sure, that's why I asked hehehe but I was only assuming it wasn't the Shea butter because I again assumed if it was it should have already melted by this stage of cooking. And if it was frozen milk, it should have also melted. No?

Yes, I now know I should have strained... My lye solution ended up in the thicker side and I kinda panicked and just glopped it in.. What I do know is that I'm sure there were no chunky bits like this in the lye solution when I poured it in.

I'm also now wondering if I was cross eyed while measuring the frozen milk or the solution got too cold? I don't have a way to take the temperature but the container was hot by the time the milk was slushy and I could feel the fear when I hovered my hand over the top.

 

[shunt2011]

That's a hard call then. I would mold it, cut it and then re-evaluate it. I can't tell from the picture. If you're doing HP I would think the shea would have melted absolutely. Sometimes things just go wrong.

 

[Dawni]

I took a piece out with a spoon and dunked it in a container with water to get rid of whatever "soap" was coating it.. They're quite hard, and the color of my thick lye solution earlier.


@shunt2011, thank you, that's probably what I will do since I don't think anything else can happen while it's still in the pot.

 

[shunt2011]

Can you smash it? I'm thinking your milk turned to soap. Those are really big chunks. Hopefully someone with more HP experience and dissolving lye in milk will pop in. Or other ideas. I'm plum out.... LOL

 

[Dawni]

Can you smash it? I'm thinking your milk turned to soap. Those are really big chunks. Hopefully someone with more HP experience and dissolving lye in milk will pop in. Or other ideas. I'm plum out.... LOL

Ikr, first when I saw smaller pieces I thought to smash them, but when my spatula encountered bigger pieces I was like whoa! And no, I'm not able to smash with a spoon, squeeze with my fingertips, nor dissolve it in water.

I licked that piece though.. It zapped like I assumed it would, but not too much like how I've read here that it made tongues sore. My tongue is fine lol

So.... Toss it?

Thank you for trying, and all your input @shunt2011

And yes, I hope someone can tell me what caused this so I don't do it again. Although I will make my lye solution with water and add my milk to the oils when I try again hehe

 

[shunt2011]

I personally would toss it, but wait and see if someone else has a suggestion.

 

[Obsidian]

I think I would toss it too unless you can pick ever single chunk out. Can you simmer your fresh coconut milk down to a concentrate? That way you can add it directly to your oils and still get the full amount even after dissolving your lye in water.

 

[Dawni]

I think I would toss it too unless you can pick ever single chunk out. Can you simmer your fresh coconut milk down to a concentrate? That way you can add it directly to your oils and still get the full amount even after dissolving your lye in water.

Add to oils like an additive and still use the total water amount called for separately? Is that what you meant? I could try it..

Actually, in the spirit of trying til all options are exhausted, I did think of fishing out all the chunks. I scooped out a bit of soap sitting in the mold, and there aren't many, and they are quite distinguishable in terms of color, texture and hardness so maaaaybe I'll get some me time and do that.

If I do I'll still rebatch this into fresh soap.

I did some more reading and I think the problem was the frozen milk was too frozen hence the thick lye solution. That alone should have sent red flags but my inexperience did not alarm me til after the fact. Maybe I already had chunks in it though I didn't see any and when I mixed into the oils something happened to solidify them even more? I'll try it as a slushy next time and see, and also strain it. And also try adding it differently as you ladies suggested. Just so I've tried everything lol

Thanks for your input @Obsidian

 

[cmzaha]

To me it looks like it could be dried soap from the crock pot. I would still mold the soap and determine later if it is okay after curing

 

[Dawni]

To me it looks like it could be dried soap from the crock pot. I would still mold the soap and determine later if it is okay after curing

I wish they were, but not this time. Now that it's more solid than liquid you can clearly see which pieces are dried soap and which are these lye chunks, as I'm calling them. They don't smush like soap, they are more like lil round stones and they just really stick out.

 

[msunnerstood]

If you dissolved your lye fully in the water than I doubt they are lye chunks. When did you add the coconut milk? When Ive used milks I discounted my water and added it at the end. I have heard milks can burn, discolor and lump when added earlier but I dont use milks often.

 

[Dawni]

If you dissolved your lye fully in the water than I doubt they are lye chunks. When did you add the coconut milk? When Ive used milks I discounted my water and added it at the end. I have heard milks can burn, discolor and lump when added earlier but I dont use milks often.

I did not use water at all. Just coconut milk as full replacement of water.

And I thought I had dissolved the lye fully. When the lye was still flakes I could feel and hear them against the spoon. When I couldn't anymore, I still continued stirring for a while, checking for lumps.

I turned around to check the temperature of my oils and when I got back to the lye solution it was thickening up so I quickly glopped it in with the oils.

 

[earlene]

The only time I had huge lye rocks (chunks) in soap was when I used frozen milk. I ended up with HUGE lye rocks. And yes, there was absolutely no doubt as I was STUPID enough to lick one of them!! Never again; extremely bad idea; weeks for my tongue to heal. I was actually lucky it did heal.

I also thought it had completely dissolved, but it ended up with a hard crusty layer that formed on the bottom. So for some reason, lye precipitated out of solution and I wasn't too inexperienced to realize that it was not going to re-melt again in HP soap. Your description sounds an awful lot like what I experienced, with a few minor differences.

The trouble with straining out the lye solids in a colder-than-optimal lye 'solution' is that you will end up with an unknown superfat.

I recommend tossing this out. Rebatching is possible, but not really worth the trouble.

 

[Obsidian]

@Dawni no, you would still count it as part of your total liquid.

Lets say you have 4 ounces of coconut milk and you concentrate it down to 2 ounces. Mix that with you oils and use water for the rest of your required liquid.

Its a way to use a larger amount of the milk while still having enough water to properly dissolve the lye.

I do this with beer. I can concentrate a full 16 oz bottle down to 2 ounces. This way I get a lot of beer in my soap without having to mix the lye into the beer itself.

 

[Dawni]

Ah I get it now @Obsidian.. I will think on this. The reason I used frozen is coz the coconut milk was fresh. With the heat we have here it spoils very fast and I am not always sure when I'm gonna have the time to soap, so having it frozen tackled both issues.

If I simmer, I'll have to cool it down and put it in the chiller at least, if I think I may get to soap a couple of hours later. If I can't, I'll have to put it back in the freezer and again thaw it before putting it in my oils. Or is it ok to dump completely frozen liquid in warm/hot oils in the pot?

It does sound like a much better way of using other liquids and not messing with the lye too much though, thanks for the advise.

@earlene, yes it does sound like I'd have to toss it. And yes, very similar situations minus the hard crusty layer but I think if I left my solution to sit more I'd have gotten that. It was so thick and looked like it was on its way there lol

Sounds like straining a solution like this isn't the best call either, coz of the unknown superfat. Maybe I should have let the container sit in hot water? Would it have maybe melted back to liquid?

Oh well..... I'll have a go at this again for sure. I'll have to see which way is more feasible for me but I will get this right.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Obsidian]

Your condensed milk doesn't have to be chilled, just cooled to the temp of your melted oils.
I freeze goat and coconut milk in ice cube trays and store the cubes in a zipped bag. That way I can just grab what I need, doesn't take long to thaw either.

 

[Dawni]

Yes, probably would take even less time to thaw here lol

The only issue I see will be spoilage if left out too long, if I suddenly don't get the chance to soap after I've done my simmering.

I'll get around that, no biggie. Thanks again