When do you add milk?

[itsmeroro]

Hello --

Last night I was making another batch of Goats Milk - from fresh GM straight from the fridge... I sort of foo-pawed and dumped the lye in the GM and aloe vera - POOF - a nice bright yellow! Grrr.

I was certain that the GM was scorched, so I dumped that all out and remixed the lye with just the measure of aloe vera --

then I poured the GM in the melted and cool oils before I added the lye and aloe vera -- everything "seems" ok this morning - but my question is without adding the milk in the lye, is this ok to do - or add it at trace - does anyone do it this way? And what have your results been?

Hope this is not too scattered!

Rachelle

 

[Chalk Creek]

HI. I make only milk soaps and do it a couple different ways. In my full milk soaps, I add the lye to partially frozen slushy milk. I add the lye very slowly over several minutes. When I make partial milk soap, I add the milk at the very first sign of faint trace.

Either way I have light tan soaps, no burnt milk orange color.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

YUP, I add it at very, very light trace. Your TOG Molds will help you get a nice milk soap! Look fr them soon! It's been hectic, but yours are headed out.

Paul....

 

[Guest]

YUP, I add it at very, very light trace. Your TOG Molds will help you get a nice milk soap! Look fr them soon! It's been hectic, but yours are headed out.

Paul....

Ok i'm now changing my ways.......

I've always added it to the oils before adding my lye liquid mixture.

 

[itsmeroro]

Thanks Paul -- I look forward to getting them!

I was not too sure about adding milk in at trace (or what the rules are about this) - but thought it might be easier, and heck, it even seems to have worked out.

I think adding in at trace seems much less stressful! I will stick to that method.

Rachelle

 

[itsmeroro]

YUP, I add it at very, very light trace. Your TOG Molds will help you get a nice milk soap! Look fr them soon! It's been hectic, but yours are headed out.

Paul....

Ok i'm now changing my ways.......

I've always added it to the oils before adding my lye liquid mixture.

Hi Faithy - That is how I did it last night - I wonder if there is a big difference with doing this or adding it in at trace?

 

[sassylady]

I SB'd my GM concentrate into my oils prior to adding the lye mixture the last time I made milk soap. No crazy scorching or orange color. I used RT lye mixture, too. I guess you'd say chilled lye mixture, as the room temp was in the high sixties.:wink: My newest GM soap came out a beautiful creamy color. I'm liking this way of doing things!

ps I'm gonna have to try fresh GM just to see if it's any different. I will then do the frozen/slushy GM and add the lye sloooooowly as previously stated.

 

[Guest]

Because I can't get fresh goats milk I buy the canned stuff that is condenced (concentrated) so I need to take that into consideration with my recipes. So instead of using water to reconstute it, I use aloe juice now. And I do this seperately adding the aloe juice with my lye and the Goats Milk in later.

 

[itsmeroro]

I used 1/2 fresh GM and 1/2 Aloe Vera Juice lastnight -

When mixing the lye - I just used that with the 1/2 AV and added the GM to the melted oils -

Rachelle

 

[SuperPhat]

I made my first 2 batches with milk last night... The first, I added the lye to all my milk. YUCK! Orange curdled milk is not appetizing, even if it is in soap. The next batch I did 1/2 water and 1/2 milk but added the milk at light trace. It seems to have worked perfectly.

 

[NameThatCandy]

I plan to make goat milk soap this weekend, do you all freeze your goat milk? Coz I didn't freeze the goat milk, I just put in refrigerator, will it be ok? It is not fresh goat milk, it is a canned one.

I will us Aloe Vera Juice as my water to mix with lye, then add goat milk at light trace like you all do.

 

[Chalk Creek]

In my experience, if you add lye to the milk, it must be frozen first. Pour the lye when the milk is very slushy and add the lye over several minutes, also pouring in an ice water bath (or snowbank this time of year) really helps to keep the milk from scorching. But, you have to be extra sure the lye dissolves completely, as sometimes the colder temps hinder it.

When added add trace, the milk does not need to be frozen.

I use only fresh whole milk and have no experience using canned or powdered milks, so have no idea how they react to lye.

I love full milk soaps and think they are worth the extra steps. My soaps are very light tan (unless I use a colorant).

Good luck!

 

[NameThatCandy]

thanks Chalk Creek, I can't wait to try this afternoon.

Last question, do you insulate your milk soaps? I remember to read some threads about overheat.

 

[Chalk Creek]

I do insulate the mold, or I often OP for an hour at 170. I get full gel, and have not had over heating problems. The only issue I've had was a soap that I put milk and honey in. It came out fine, but very dark brown. I don't know if that was from the sugars in both the milk and honey heating up or what happened.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[NameThatCandy]

I planned to make a GM soap today, but I still have couple more questions, do you superfat GM? 5%? and what is your lye concentration? I do my regular soaps at 31%.

Thanks

 

[Chalk Creek]

I usually superfat 5 to 7%, but have done Paul's 100% coconut (20% sf, if I recall correctly without looking it up) with all milk for the liquid the soap came out great. My usual solution is 33%.

 

[NameThatCandy]

thanks chalk creek.

BTW, I visited your website, your dwarf goats are very cute. Are they still a babies or adults?

 

[Chalk Creek]

Aww, that's for the goat compliment. They are mostly grown and two of the does are expecting their first kids this spring, the littlest one has not been to meet the buck yet, but will soon.

I can't wait to have Nigerian milk to make soap with. It has more milk solids in it than other goat milk, so am anxious to see how it works in soap. There's one goat dairy that uses only Nigerians to make their cheese, because they get much more cheese (milk solids) per gallon of milk than with other breeds' milk.

 

[NameThatCandy]

How many goats do you have? They are soooooo cute!

 

[Chalk Creek]

I have 8 right now: 5 Nigerians, 2 Nubians, and a little crossbred doe. 6 will be having babies this spring, and they typically have 2 or 3 each, so I'm going to have A LOT more little goats to love!