Nonna's Laundry Soap

[Katy]

Hi, I have been searching for an authentic recipe for my Nonna's hot process laundry soap. I have been looking for this elusive recipe for a few years. Sadly my Nonna who lived in Calabria Italy passed away a few years ago without passing her knowledge on. This soap was cooked in cauldrons using Olive oil and sometimes spent/used oils. It was turned out onto wood tables and cut into big blocks when ready. Usually tan in appearance and real rustic looking. This soap has been made and used for many generations. Unfortunately with modernisation we have lost this Mother Daughter tradition. If anyone has a recipe and method for this wonderful soap please, please let me know.
My Nonna told me many stories of washing clothes in mountain streams. I would really like to keep this recipe alive for future generations.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Well, I am not your Nonna, but it doesn't sound like she had a recipe as such. It sounds more like she used the salting out method of making soap. Personally, if you want a decent laundry soap I would just make a 100% coconut oil soap using a decent lye calculator. It won't be Nonna's, but it will be a good laundry soap that you can pass on down the generations. The results will also be better than what Nonna's one was.

However, if recreating is what you are looking for, rather than performance, you can use olive oil. If you want to use spent oils, then you might well be looking at salting out.

 

[Katy]

Thanks I will certainly look at all options.
This is still something I must pursue in order to keep the tradition alive. I have used this laundry soap bar all my life and it is the very best in my opinion for hand washing stains and grime from clothes. Nothing else has come close to its effectiveness so far especially the commercial bars.
I do intend to use clean oil not spent oil.
What is the salting out method? Sound interesting and perhaps this is what I should be looking at.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

That method was needed because people weren't able to accurately calculate how much lye they would need to use. These days, we can set a lye calculator (such as SoapCalc) to give us a soap with no excess lye and no excess oils - that wasn't possible back then, so they had to use too much lye and then cook the mixture in salt water to separate the soap itself from all the left over stuff, such as unused lye.

 

[Katy]

That seems to be a very efficient method for the time. I love the history of soap making in different regions and countries.
I am still keen on making a hard bar of hot process Olive oil soap for hand washing. I will give it a try just not sure how much lye I will need to use for a laundry bar compared to a body or facial bar. I believe it should be 0% superfatted.

 

[IrishLass]

Katy (by the way, welcome!), your post intrigued me and so I went on a search through some Italian websites and blogs when I couldn't find much on English sites except for people remembering the soap their Nonna's used to make and wishing they had the recipe, lol

Anyway, I had to resort to Google Translate to understand what on earth I was reading on these Italian sites, but I found a lovely blog complete with old pictures of Italian Nonna's making the laundry soap in a cauldron, etc......and it also has a recipe and video! Here is the blog: http://fattoincasadabenedetta.blogspot.it/2013/02/sapone-da-bucato-fatto-in-casa.html If you can't read Italian, just open Google Translate and copy/paste the words in in order to see what it says in English.

The recipe uses olive oil as well as a certain amount of spent oil, like you remember, and it also has lard in it.

Hope that helps!

IrishLass

 

[Katy]

Thank you Irish Lass for taking the time to search.
This recipe seems authentic in its use of ingredients. I understand the need for using what was at hand and not wasting anything.
The method shown is Cold Process so even Nonna's have evolved in their soap making. To respect the authentic method of cooking in a cauldron, I would like to try making this soap hot process. Obviously not in enormous quantities but in a Crock Pot.
I have only made CP soap so would you know if I have to change the quantity of ingredients for HP soap.
Thanks for your time

 

[girlishcharm2004]

To truly make it authentic, I think you would need to use wood ashes, or at least a large portion of potassium hydroxide. You will need to run your proportion of oils through a soap calculator to know the appropriate quantities of KOH to use because NaOH and KOH saponify different amounts of oil. Throw that in the slow cooker. And 0% superfat is what you want.

 

[IrishLass]

Thank you Irish Lass for taking the time to search.
This recipe seems authentic in its use of ingredients. I understand the need for using what was at hand and not wasting anything.
The method shown is Cold Process so even Nonna's have evolved in their soap making. To respect the authentic method of cooking in a cauldron, I would like to try making this soap hot process. Obviously not in enormous quantities but in a Crock Pot.
I have only made CP soap so would you know if I have to change the quantity of ingredients for HP soap.
Thanks for your time

Hi Katy-

Yes- you can make the same recipe via hot process in your crockpot. If I myself were going to make it, this is how I'd do it-

I'd use the same ingredients, making sure to run it through a lye calculator first in order to get the proper lye and water amounts. From what I could tell from the recipe, they used NaOH (which is what I would use for HP as well), and they seemed to have used a lye discount of about 1%, which is perfectly fine for laundry. You could change it to 0% if you want it to be more cleansing, but that is up to you. Either % will do nicely for laundry.

As for the water amount- I would change it to a higher water amount than what they used in the recipe, seeing how you will be HPing it instead of CPing it. If it were me, I would use a 28% lye concentration/solution, or what is known as a 'full water' amount.

Then I would HP it the normal/modern way. You could try to make it as authentic as possible with potassium hydroxide and then salting it out, etc..., but that seems to be a lot of trouble to go through for a small batch in a crockpot, especially when it's much easier to get practically the same end result with NaOH. But that's just my opinion.

HTH!
IrishLass

 

[biarine]

Hi kathy maybe you called Nonna soap is a curd soap in Germany my aunt also making that type of soap.

 

[Katy]

Thanks everyone. I will take your advice on board.
biarine please tell me about German Curd soap.

 

[biarine]

My aunt she did hot process soap first with 0% SF ( you need 100% lye) when the soap done she add 3 to 1 water to paste ratio then she add the water into the soap paste. Dissolve in low heat, when the paste fully dissolve she add pure sea salt ( without caking agent ) for 1000 grams of paste she add the salt about 1 1/4 cup. Mix until fully dissolve it will turn thick don't panic just keep stirring until it turn like curd. Let it boiled for 4 to 5 minutes then turn off. Let it cool down for 12 to 24 hours. Take off the soap that floating in the brine water. Throw the water out and put another fresh water while cut your soap and add to the water. Dissolve again ( the same process as the first one) repeat the procedures 3 times. After the last process cut your soap and melt in your crockpot ( please be sure your soap been drained properly from water) when the soap melted put in your mold let it set for 24 to 72 hours it's depend how wet is your batter. Cut and let it cured for 3 to 4 weeks ( traditional in Germany they scented it with citronella essential oil) my aunt she melt her soap in double boiler that her preference.

 

[biarine]

Kathy this is the picture of the curd soap I made this is my second time still looking ugly I don't have cheese cutter I just cut this with a normal knife

 

[Katy]

Thanks biarine. Now I must piece the puzzle together. I have been making CP soap for a few years. The more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing about soap making. I still feel like a novice and appreciate the knowledge others are willing to share. Cheers!

 

[Katy]

biarine. I do like the look of your curd soap. Its rustic looking the way it should be. Our traditional soap was a lot darker tan in colour. What oils and fats did you use?

 

[biarine]

I use 50% percent beef tallow, 25% coconut, 20 % rice bran oil and 5% castor oil

 

[biarine]

I don't know it's very crumbly it's not like my first batch 4 months ago it's quite nice. Maybe I use table salt today with caking agent.

 

[DeeAnna]

Boyago has been experimenting with "salting out" soap scraps. He is using the same process that Biarine and her aunt are, except they are using a batch of finished soap and he is using odds and ends. The classic relatively-dry soap that results from salting out is called curd soap or grained soap in English.

More: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=52103
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=32717

With CP or HP soap, salting out is not required, but a "boiled soap" traditionally had to be salted out to remove the excess water required by the boiling process. Boiled soap is a very old process, but it's still the way commercial soap is being made. I don't think modern commercial soap is salted out, however -- the soap is dried by a different process. Folks making boiled soap the old fashioned way must salt out the soap to separate it from the water.

 

[biarine]

Boyago has been experimenting with "salting out" soap scraps. He is using the same process that Biarine and her aunt are, except they are using a batch of finished soap and he is using odds and ends. The classic relatively-dry soap that results from salting out is called curd soap or grained soap in English.

More: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=52103
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=32717

With CP or HP soap, salting out is not required, but a "boiled soap" traditionally had to be salted out to remove the excess water required by the boiling process. Boiled soap is a very old process, but it's still the way commercial soap is being made. I don't think modern commercial soap is salted out, however -- the soap is dried by a different process. Folks making boiled soap the old fashioned way must salt out the soap to separate it from the water.

Yes that's true DeeAnn my aunt said that's her mother in law recipe before they using soda ash instead of sodium hydroxide

 

[Saponista]

Do you think that nonna's method is how they would make Savon de Marseille in your other three biarine?