Is this ricing?

[Astro]

I am new to soaping and this is my 5th batch - I have just seen the thread on ricing, volcanoes, etc. Is this ricing?
It was an experiment using fresh mint dried in the microwave and added to pureed cucumber as 2/3rds of the liquid component which came to trace and was cooking nicely HP before this happened. I had turned off the heat to try to avoid the cucumber cooking too much when it happened. I panicked and beat it into submission with the blender but it still didnt look right until I turned the heat up and it cooked some more and went through all the HP stages. The finished product seems to have come out ok though. Any comments or feedback would be appreciated.​

 

[cmzaha]

I would say you just did not let it go through the stages of HP. Ricing usually occurs from a naughty fo added to cp batter causing the batter to separate into little grains looking like rice. Did you subtract your cucumber juice from your total liquid requirement? The cucumber juice is just a water replacement and will not cause issues. I really am not sure why your batter became lumpy like oatmeal but that is not really what ricing looks like but then soap can do funny things. Ultimately, you followed the proper course by finishing the full hp procedure. When a soap rices hp is the best fix.

 

[TheGecko]

I am new to soaping and this is my 5th batch - I have just seen the thread on ricing, volcanoes, etc. Is this ricing?​

Not a HP person, but 'ricing' literally looks like you have white grains of rice in your batter. What it looks to me, is what pie crust made with wheat flour with just the shortening or butter mixed in (or maybe a really lumpy oatmeal).​

 

[Astro]

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to know it doesn't seem to be ricing but it just makes me more curious about what caused it.
The cucumber was pureed and used in a 2:1 ratio - 2 parts cucumber, 1 part water as the total water requirement, the puree was frozen and the water was iced before the caustic soda was added so as not to cook the cucumber in lye solution.
I used a very basic CP recipe (recipe below) using cheap oils and HP as this was a "run before you can walk" experiment with fresh veg.
I can think of 2 reasons this might have happened:
1. I had a lovely batter cooking then lowered the heat of the crockpot, again to not overcook the veg, and it was after that that the lumpy separation occurred.
2. The oils started to separate from the puree in some chemical reaction (my thinking is the high ratio of coconut oil might have something to do with it but this is a suspicion with no applied logic).
The recipe I used was
374g Water (at room temperature) 154g Caustic Soda 600g Coconut Oil 400g Sunflower Oil
PS. I don't particularly like the soap but it has a lovely lather and will use it for cleaning rather than bathing.