No stick blender

[mamansavon]

As I mentioned before, I'm away from home and would like to make soap for my host.
I was planning to make Zany's No Slime.
I don't have access to a stick blender though.
Is it realistic to attempt it stirring by hand?
Thanks

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Yes, it is absolutely possible. I myself have a love-hate relationship to SBs, hence some ambitions to do as much as possible without them.

Castile-like soaps (mostly olive or equivalent) are about the most painfully slow-moving recipes, unless your olive oil is on the “quicker” side for some reason (onto which I rather wouldn't rely).

• You could try it anyway. If you're feeling like it, you can skim through this thread: Deanna, I have a question... for more information/discussion. My last SB-free CP soap (low-INS, but otherwise a balanced recipe) took about half an hour of essentially constant stirring until it reached something like a very light trace. But I have had unstable emulsion before, not nice to realise after you took them out of the CPOP oven…
• Coconut makes it only a bit easier at normal usage rates (<25%). You could use 100% CO (at 20% SF) though, cf. salt bars, but they allegedly demand a lot of curing patience.
• Hot Process. It's taking a bit longer until the lye “bites” when you're just stirring instead of SBing (say 10 instead of 2 minutes), but that's about it.
• (Ab)use accelerating ingredients like FOs, sugar/honey, rubbing alcohol, TD, stearic acid (grated-up stearin candle), pine tar, coconut milk – that are known to possibly be troublesome with SBing protocols, but here they might help you shorten the duration until the saponification reaches that critical point of stable emulsion by itself.
• Probably a few things more that I've forgotten…

It depends a lot on which conception of design you have. If it should become “just soap” with no fancy colouration etc., hot process would be the easiest, and “ready to use” within hours (though better if you let it the same 4…6 weeks of curing time as you would with CP).

 

[mamansavon]

Thank you.
The plan is either trifecta soap or Zany's No Slime Castile.
Both with a teaspoon of honey as my host keeps bees

 

[Zany_in_CO]

The plan is either trifecta soap or Zany's No Slime Castile.

What a neat idea -- making honey soap for your beekeeper host!

If by "trifecta" you mean the BASIC TRINITY OF OILS, I would vote for that -- subbing lard for the palm in the recipe. Lard is readily available at the grocery store and makes super nice soap that almost everyone likes. You can also use the box for a mold, and the wax paper to line it. Although, you will have soap left over. You can get ideas for makeshift molds from this thread GROCERY STORE SOAP CHALLENGE.
Without an SB, soaps high in olive oil, like ZNSC, take longer to trace. I would add the honey to the warmed oils before adding the lye solution.

 

[mamansavon]

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Nona'sFarm]

What a neat idea -- making honey soap for your beekeeper host!

If by "trifecta" you mean the BASIC TRINITY OF OILS, I would vote for that -- subbing lard for the palm in the recipe. Lard is readily available at the grocery store and makes super nice soap that almost everyone likes. You can also use the box for a mold, and the wax paper to line it. Although, you will have soap left over. You can get ideas for makeshift molds from this thread GROCERY STORE SOAP CHALLENGE.
Without an SB, soaps high in olive oil, like ZNSC, take longer to trace. I would add the honey to the warmed oils before adding the lye solution.

Wow, always learn so much from your posts @Zany_in_CO .

 

[Nona'sFarm]

Thank you.
The plan is either trifecta soap or Zany's No Slime Castile.
Both with a teaspoon of honey as my host keeps bees

The recommended amount of honey is 1-3 teaspoons per pound of oil. Though at the higher end I did have problems with partial gels until I learned about CPOP.

 

[earlene]

As I mentioned before, I'm away from home and would like to make soap for my host.
I was planning to make Zany's No Slime.
I don't have access to a stick blender though.
Is it realistic to attempt it stirring by hand?
Thanks

I make Castile without a SB using half pomace OO and half regular OO (not EVOO, but a cheaper grade.) Pomace speeds trace, so I only hand-stir this Castile recipe and it only takes a couple of minutes to thicken up and be ready to pour. If you can find pomace OO where you are visiting, that would be my suggestion, although I know it's not easy to find in some locales. My local grocery store used to stock it, but they don't anymore. I almost always see it in stores that specialize in Italian food products, so maybe see if there is one nearby.

 

[mamansavon]

I make Castile without a SB using half pomace OO and half regular OO (not EVOO, but a cheaper grade.) Pomace speeds trace, so I only hand-stir this Castile recipe and it only takes a couple of minutes to thicken up and be ready to pour. If you can find pomace OO where you are visiting, that would be my suggestion, although I know it's not easy to find in some locales. My local grocery store used to stock it, but they don't anymore. I almost always see it in stores that specialize in Italian food products, so maybe see if there is one nearby.

Loads and loads of pomace around here!