Milk/Water split

[Krn]

When making milk soap, I dissolve the lye with an equal amount of water, then use milk for the rest of my liquid. I would like to know if I can dissolve lye in less water. Example: recipe calls for 8.7 ounces of lye and 24 ounces of liquid. I dissolve the lye in 9 ounces water and then add to 15 ounces of milk. This works, but I would really like to use more milk. I can't see if lye is dissolved when trying to dissolve it in milk. Thanks for the help!

 

[AliOop]

Sorry, but you must use at least an equal weight of water for the weight of lye being dissolved.

Other options would be to add some powdered milk to your oils or milk, or to try freezing only some of the milk for the lye solution, so you can more easily see whether the lye has dissolved.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

@Krn Yes, you can do that. 8.7 oz of NaOH will easily dissolve into 24 oz of milk. If the milky liquid brings fats, consider adding them to the oil blend formula (if you use 3.7% dairy milk in your concentration, it'll raise superfat by 1.3% otherwise; this is more relevant for heavy cream, coconut milk, etc.).
AFAIK, the limiting factor is the heat from the lye dissolution, that worsens curdling/scorching of milk. Many milk soapers freeze the milk and combine these milk ice cubes with the lye; this saves some heat stress from the milk, and makes the whole lye dissolution less angry.

Several ways to prevent undissolved lye in the batter. You can pour the lye solution through a strainer, either directly into the oils, or into another container, if you want to have a chance to correct. Or use a transparent container (clear PP plastic) and put a mirror under it, to see if some NaOH bits are floating around at the bottom (or look from it from beneath, if you don't mind to lift caustic solution overhead). One can also listen if there is still some crackling/rustling when stirring.

 

[Krn]

Thank you all so much! I do freeze the milk, and use transparent containers and I also strain it. I just thought that since I add the lye water to the milk , I could maybe use less water and more milk. Oh well!

 

[AliOop]

Thank you all so much! I do freeze the milk, and use transparent containers and I also strain it. I just thought that since I add the lye water to the milk , I could maybe use less water and more milk. Oh well!

Unfortunately, if you start with not quite enough water to fully dissolve the lye before adding the rest of the milk, then you will have some undissolved lye when you add the milk - which is what you are trying to avoid, yes?

 

[Krn]

Yes. I just wanted a higher percentage of milk. I really would prefer to skip the water and and just use the milk, but I don't want to risk not getting it all dissolved. Thanks for the advice

 

[Cat&Oak]

I'm sure you just want to use fresh milk but using dried milk and mixing it with your oils could solve all this for you. Higher % of milk without having to adjust your water down. Just be mindful of temperature it can get quite hot.

A while back I made a salt bar batch from our wonderful Irishlass, I put waaaay too much dried milk in and it overheated and smells a bit funky so I am just keeping them but I took a bar in the shower the other day just out of curiosity and was blown away at how nice it is with all that milk. I absolutely love it.

 

[Krn]

Thank you! I have had absolutely wonderful results using 100% milk. I only had one time that I didn't get all the lye dissolved, but I don't want to chance a not safe soap!

 

[AliOop]

Thank you! I have had absolutely wonderful results using 100% milk. I only had one time that I didn't get all the lye dissolved, but I don't want to chance a not safe soap!

The easy solution is to pour the milk-lye solution into the oils through a fine strainer. That will catch any undissolved lye crystals and also allow you to smash any fat blobs that have started saponifying.

 

[Krn]

Thanks everyone one for your help!