I'm wondering if anyone can help me with the process for making this soap.
After reading Catherine Failor's Making Transparent Soap, I would like to try this method. One of the methods outlined is the alcohol/lye method, wherein you add the alcohol at the beginning of the cook along with the melted fats and lye solution.
Miller soap has some excellent tips, recipes etc, particularly Jeff Bobeck's method http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html but if you read carefully in the comments someone named Marci said, "I do want to mention something really funny. I went to the link for transparent soap and read all the recipes and formulas. Some were very detailed and some a bit more simplified. I started to go with one recipe with a 4 step process and realized that I added the ingredients in the wrong order. So I just added all the ingredients to the Slow Cooker at once. It was basically a one step process. (#1. Throw everything in the pot. ) So after 30 minutes on low, I had the string like glycerin dripping off the spoon. The soap came out perfect! I could even read 14 point type through 1/4" of it. I wanted to see if I could repeat the process to make sure it wasn't a blessed accident and have made three batches since and they all came out perfectly. So strange and funny - throw everything in the slow cooker, boil 30 minutes, pour, done....."
Another great site gives calculations for those of us who can't get 190 proof ethanol, http://www.bearchele.com/soap/Tutorial.html
So my question is has anyone tried using the alcohol/lye method in the crockpot (rather than the tightly covered double boiler method Failor describes)? What was the outcome? What experiences did or didn't work? Is throwing everything in the crock pot and cooking on low for 30 minutes something that you would be willing to try? The chemistry of it says it SHOULD work, I am just a little hesitant to waste all the ingredients if it doesn't work, and I am not experienced enough to know how to fix it if it goes wrong! And I cannot find any other reference to doing it this way anywhere on the internet. Any help is much appreciated!
p.s. sorry for the long post!
After reading Catherine Failor's Making Transparent Soap, I would like to try this method. One of the methods outlined is the alcohol/lye method, wherein you add the alcohol at the beginning of the cook along with the melted fats and lye solution.
Miller soap has some excellent tips, recipes etc, particularly Jeff Bobeck's method http://www.millersoap.com/glycerinsoap.html but if you read carefully in the comments someone named Marci said, "I do want to mention something really funny. I went to the link for transparent soap and read all the recipes and formulas. Some were very detailed and some a bit more simplified. I started to go with one recipe with a 4 step process and realized that I added the ingredients in the wrong order. So I just added all the ingredients to the Slow Cooker at once. It was basically a one step process. (#1. Throw everything in the pot. ) So after 30 minutes on low, I had the string like glycerin dripping off the spoon. The soap came out perfect! I could even read 14 point type through 1/4" of it. I wanted to see if I could repeat the process to make sure it wasn't a blessed accident and have made three batches since and they all came out perfectly. So strange and funny - throw everything in the slow cooker, boil 30 minutes, pour, done....."
Another great site gives calculations for those of us who can't get 190 proof ethanol, http://www.bearchele.com/soap/Tutorial.html
So my question is has anyone tried using the alcohol/lye method in the crockpot (rather than the tightly covered double boiler method Failor describes)? What was the outcome? What experiences did or didn't work? Is throwing everything in the crock pot and cooking on low for 30 minutes something that you would be willing to try? The chemistry of it says it SHOULD work, I am just a little hesitant to waste all the ingredients if it doesn't work, and I am not experienced enough to know how to fix it if it goes wrong! And I cannot find any other reference to doing it this way anywhere on the internet. Any help is much appreciated!
p.s. sorry for the long post!
