Salted out soap looks like canned parmesan cheese?!

[KimW]

Salted out a batch made with 100% Canola and the soap layer hardened but did not solidify. Instead, you can crush it with very little pressure into what I can only associate with canned parmesan cheese, or maybe couscous. The "grains" are very wet, so I have them spread out on a plastic bin lid to see if they'll dry. They have a great lather! I use Reverse Osmosis water for soaping and salting out. FYI - Have been playing with single oil recipes while doing the Oct Challenge, and salting out all of my beautiful fails for laundry soap. I've never seen a salted out soap do this. Any ideas?

 

[DeeAnna]

Not sure what ideas you're looking for?

In my experience, the soap from salting-out turns out exactly like you describe -- parmesan granules like you get from that famous "green can". When you remelt it and form it into bar soap, the bars won't be as dense as the original bar soap. The salted-out bars I've made are light enough to float on water.

 

[KimW]

Ah - hmmmm. How funny - that's not been my experience. No wonder there've been no other replies. When salting out I usually end up with a solid and soft soft "soap cake", if you will, that is void of perceptible moisture after a couple of days, and grinds into dry granules. While it is usually easily broken into chunks by hand, it doesn't crumble into little wet granules. Picture lightly squeezing a mass of wet, but not cooked, couscous or canned parmesan cheese in your hand - that's what this is like.

Well, perhaps I've gone years not getting what other people get when they salt out soap? I do seem to be one of those blissfully ignorant people in general so I wouldn't be surprised. LOL

 

[DeeAnna]

Hmmm. I guess I'm not understanding you very well, because I thought my experience is similar to yours, but you're saying my experience is different. So I'm feeling puzzled about what more I can say. On the theory that a picture is worth 1000 words, here are a few photos of what I expect to get when I salt out soap --

Curds after the soap was salted out --

Curds broken up and rinsed with fresh water. It's fairly easy to break these curds into even smaller "parmesan cheese" bits --

A bar of this soap after being melted and molded up. This bar floats on water --

 

[KimW]

You're right - how dumb am I? On the left is what I typically get - this is a slice out of salted out 100% Olive oil. I'm always able to cut the floating soap cake, though I could crumble it with some effort to look like your pic. On the right is what I have after salting out the 100% canola. Edit to add: I dip my cake slices in water to rinse before setting out to dry, but if I rinsed the salted out Canola on the right with fresh water, it would just melt away!

I should add that I did do some research, but the best I could find was a scientific industrial article from 1963 that still doesn't describe what I have here. Also, I did do a second and third "wash" with no salt, just in case it was due to using too much salt, but there was no change. This is what I get for playing around!

 

[DeeAnna]

One reason I can think of that migh explain some of the differences might be the various fatty acids in the soaps you and I salted out.

Olive makes a high oleic soap, and the canola makes a high linoleic soap (assuming you didn't use a high oleic canola, in which case you salted out another high oleic soap.)

I'm salting out a "normal" bath soap with a wider blend of fatty acids. Probably mostly lard (oleic-palmitic-stearic) with some coconut (myristic-lauric) and one or two high oleic fats such as avocado and/or HO sunflower.

 

[Bladesmith]

I’ve also gotten the “cake”. I usually let it cool in the container and pull it out the next day for the next “wash” or however you’d like to handle it. I use my regular lard-based bath soap recipe. It is very light (weight-wise) as described above and is also a bit crumbly until it cures for a while.

Doesn’t seem like many people do this.
It is a bit different soap but quite nice after a long cure.

Anyway, this has been my experience with it. Though my method is probably a little different.

Don’t know how helpful this is but it does seem like different oils act a bit differently texture-wise.

 

[KimW]

I’ve also gotten the “cake”. I usually let it cool in the container and pull it out the next day for the next “wash” or however you’d like to handle it. I use my regular lard-based bath soap recipe. It is very light (weight-wise) as described above and is also a bit crumbly until it cures for a while.

Hey now - that top pic looks just like what I have. If you were to push on your salted-out soap when it's like it is in the top pic, would it all crumble apart as it already is on the one side? Hmmmmmm - Looks like the issue is a combo of the oil type/fatty acids, as DeeAnna has suggested, and a lack of patience on my part! Shocker.

 

[Astro]

as a newbie I have not heard the term 'salting out' soap. Can someone explain what it is and why you would do it?
Thanks

Edit: I found Deanna's explanation and instructions (Salting-out soap | Soapy Stuff) and now understand - Thanks

 

[KimW]

Where are my manners?! Thank you, @DeeAnna and @Bladesmith !

 

[cmzaha]

Any salted out soap I have done looks like what DeeAnna ends up with. I simply do not do it because it is not my favorite type of soap. In fact, the last time I salted out a soap was to save a lye heavy (on purpose) OO soap, while it was an okay soap I think it still ended up getting trashed. It was lye heavy due to an experiment a few years ago with high water lye heavy OO soaps.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm with you, Carolyn. Like rebatching, salting-out is an interesting technique to know about and to be able to do, but both methods are not at the top of my list of things to do. A lotta work.

Knowing how to salt-out soap scraps teaches a person some of the basics of making "boiled" soap, because boiled soap has to be salted out. So if a person wants to learn how to do the boiled method, salting out scraps is a good way to get started.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Salted out a batch made with 100% Canola and the soap layer hardened but did not solidify. Instead, you can crush it with very little pressure into what I can only associate with canned parmesan cheese, I've never seen a salted out soap do this. Any ideas?

Canola Oil (Canadian Oil Low Acid) is GMO - genetically modified using several different kinds of rapeseed oil. It is meant to be low in acidity for cooking and salad dressing. Maybe that's why it doesn't play nice using this technique.

 

[KimW]

Canola Oil (Canadian Oil Low Acid) is GMO - genetically modified using several different kinds of rapeseed oil. It is meant to be low in acidity for cooking and salad dressing. Maybe that's why it doesn't play nice using this technique.

Actually, while Canola is from a hybrid Rapeseed, not all Canola is GMO. You just have to look for the butterfly on the label. I love my "butterfly" Canola.

https://livingnongmo.org/2019/02/19/gmo-feature-canola/

 

[Bladesmith]

So this soap that I made was essentially a “semi-boiled” soap. For the first image, the soap had been fully dissolved in a lye solution and cooked but it hadn’t been fully saponified yet. It was quite crumbly but a bit greasy too. So not sure it’s quite the same as what you experienced. The second was after the next cook when saponification was complete. It was all still a bit crumbly though.

I don’t do the (semi) boiled soap method often but it’s fun to mess around with.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

Actually, while Canola is from a hybrid Rapeseed, not all Canola is GMO. You just have to look for the butterfly on the label. I love my "butterfly" Canola.

https://livingnongmo.org/2019/02/19/gmo-feature-canola/

Good to know! Thank you!

 

[earlene]

When I made salted out soap, I've only got the granules that look just like DeeAnna's photo. And like Kim mentions they squash flat very easily. And like Bladesmith mentions there was a feel that she describes as greasy, but to my senses felt more like waxy while wet, not truly greasy. I am a sure different soaping oils we all used lent some differences to the way the salted-out soap granules or cakes felt to our skin. The granules took a long time to dry out. Soap made from the salted-out soap float and feel extremely light weight compared to soap of the same dimensions. It was a fun, but very time intensive process the first time I did this method. The next time I salted out soap, it felt like a tedious venture, although I got the same results; it just wasn't as much fun as the first time, I suppose because I had already learned it and didn't feel like I was learning anything new and it didn't feel particularly creative. I have not done it since.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

When I salted out soap, I had no directions so I winged it. I grated up a small batch of soap. Threw it into a pot of boiling salted water and had curds rising to the surface in 15 minutes. I used a flat strainer that I use for stir-fry in a wok to fish the curds out. I drained them on paper towels. When cool to the touch, I formed them into balls with gloved hands, and dropped them into pantyhose legs that I cut for that purpose. I tied a top knot to hook onto my banana holder (highly technical, I know). I squeezed as much water out as I could and continued to squeeze them over the next few days until no more water came out. I did three batches, the last one being a castile.

NOTES: The water left in the pot was dark brown. The weight of the soap was 1/3 less after salting out. The result was "pure" soap with an elegant feel.

Like Earlene, I have not done it since.

 

[KimW]

This is all too funny to me because I genuinely enjoy salting out soap! I just love that moment when everything turns to "curds". Just makes me giggle with happiness every single time. Like Zany, I find it only takes 15-20 minutes to reach the curd stage once the water boils. I've also found that I can heat it to boil, add salt, stir, remove from heat, put a lid on it after about five minutes of cooling and then walk away, often returning to salted out soap - which means I've only invested 5-10 minutes and this also gives me a warm and fuzzy. But then, I am easily amused.