White spots in HP soap

dimitris · Sep 16, 2013

I recently bought a small crock pot and tried Kaleb's Honey and Oat Castile recipe. This is the result:

What are these spots? I have never come across them in CP soaps!
At some point, when I opened the lid to mix the batter, I noticed that the sides of the crock pot had some white hard residue stuck to them, which may be these white spots.
They don't zap and they are squishy, like the rest of the soap!

Is it common to mix the batter throughout the whole HP process?

CaraCara · Sep 16, 2013

It looks like the dried soap on the sides of the crockpot. You don't have to stir constantly initially but I do it so that minimal soap gathers on the sides during the cook. Lovely soap, by the way. It will harden up.

sistrum · Sep 16, 2013

Yep, looks like soap crusties to me too.

Just a hint for you. When doing HP if you mound the top of the soap when you put it in the mold you won't get that "sunken head syndrome" and if you use full water leaving the lid off when cooking will let some of the extra water escape and they will dry a bit faster. Good job by the way

dimitris · Sep 16, 2013

Thanks for the help!
It is soap crusties. I searched around the forum and found out that I should have set my crock pot to LOW and also used a towel to insulate it better and stop water from evaporating!

Nonetheless, I am in love with my crock pot!

dimitris · Oct 2, 2013

So I have done 2 things to make these crusties disappear.
First of all, I set the crock pot to Low. Otherwise, if set to high, the soap on the sides of the crock pots solidifies and we get these crusties.
I also used a towel between the bowl and cover, to make sure that water doesn't escape too quickly throughout the cooking process, but only during the later stages.

loveit_latherit · Oct 2, 2013

I haven't done croc pot I like double boiler. And I find that right when I pop my soap pot into the water pot, if I don't stir once right away, the soap gets very firm on the top and these happen (also I like to cook at thick trace). And I stir 4 or 5 times during the cook which is pretty quick, about 25 - 40 mins or so if water is boiling and batch is small. The crusties are no big deal - not so pretty - but don't affect your soap I feel. Have you tried double boiler? Also, the sunken in part.. I have gotten that too. The way I found to resolve that is to line my mold with plastic and do not tape it to the mold. Pour in your batter and drop a few times to compress. As it dries, it will shrink but taking the plastic with it so it stays nice and plump on top, otherwise as it pulls & dries, the top sinks ;-) Good luck!

roseb · Oct 5, 2013

I rarely get crusties. I start out on high and as soon as I reach trace I turn the crockpot to low until it folds. Then I turn it off insulate with a towel and get wonderfully light fluffy soap. The trick is to get as much stuff off the sides as you can before turning it to low and DO NOT stir the soap while its cooking. I love HP and it's the only way I soap now.

gruntedsoaps · Oct 5, 2013

I got that before. truthfully I like the distinction of it. but one thing that has stopped that from happening for me last time was I stick blended the bijesus out of it. lol. I guess I broke up all the big chunks and they didn't form as large this time.