The Bradford Place
Research on period Soap Making
Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it Should Be. p. 331, 1865
Soft Soap, Very Superior: Twenty pounds of potash, twenty pounds of fat, and thirty-two gallons of water, reduced to twenty gallons by slow simmering.
Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it Should Be. p. 331, 1865
Another Way: Sixteen pounds of potash, and twenty-five pounds of good fat, to a barrel of water; a part only of the water to be put to the potash and fat at first; when the fat is destroyed add the remainder of the water; this makes a very strong and white soap.
Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it Should Be. p. 332, 1865
Another Good Soap: Nine pounds of fat; nine pounds of potash, boiled with four gallons of water until all the potash is dissolved, then fill the barrel with hot water.
Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it Should Be. p.342, 1865
Soft Soap from Kitchen Grease or Scraps. Dissolve and strain into a pork barrel any refuse grease of twenty-five pounds, into this put eighteen pounds of best potash; on these pour two pailsful of boiling water; stir this with a long stick well; let this stand three days, and then add another pail of water; when all has set well, fill up the barrel with water; stir well, and frequently. This supplies the family with cleaning soap at a small expense.
Godey's p. 303 - March 1863
Soft Soap - To one cake of the concentrated lye, add three gallons of soft water. Set it on the fire, put in four pounds of soap fat, and let it boil till quite clear. Empty into a barrel, and add twelve gallons of soft water. When cold, it will be as thick as jelly. The concentrated lye can be had at most any drug store.
Employments of Women, p. 390, 1863
That sold in groceries is made mostly in towns or in the country. It is hardened by muriate of soda, and called bar soap. That used by people in the country is generally of their own make, and called soft soap. In New York, we observed in some groceries barrels of soft soap of a very light color, almost white... A machine has been invented for cutting soap into bars, which will doubtless in time do away with the primitive plan of cutting it with wires.
Manual of Agriculture, for the School, the Farm, and the Fireside, George B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint, 1862.
In the ashes of trees and other woody plants, as well as in most other ashes, potash is found. If wood ashes be leached, that is, if hot water be poured upon them, it will, in a short time, dissolve the potash in the ashes. The dark-colored, strong lye, thus obtained, boiled with oil or fat, forms common soft soap.
The Ladies' Repository Domestic Economy p. 567, 1860
Soft soap should be kept in a dry place in the cellar, and should not be used till three months old.
Bar soap should be cut into pieces of a convenient size, and laid where it will become dry. It is well to keep it several weeks before using it, as it spends fast when it is new.
The Ladies' Repository Domestic Economy p. 183, 1860
To Make Hard Soap.-- Families who manufacture their own soap, which, if well made, is superior to that which is kept at the shops, or carted around by to soap-grease man, are often at a loss how to convert soft soap into hard. The process is simple and may be performed thus: Heat the soap, and add common salt, a little at a time. Take out occasionally a small quantity and try it by cooling in a dish--when sufficiently salted, a thick scum will rise to the surface. Allow it to cool in tubs; some liquid will settle at the bottom, but the greater part will be hard, and can be cut into bars and dried. It improves by age and drying. When used for washing fine linen, etc., the salt which crusts on the outside of the pieces should be carefully scraped off.
Domestic and Rural Affairs. Elliot G. Storke, 1859.
How to Make Soap without Boiling. Take one gallon of lye, strong enough to bear up an egg, to every pound of grease. Put the lye into your barrel, and strain the grease hot through a sieve or cullender. Stir this three or four times a day for several days, or until it thickens. By this process you have soap clearer, and with much less trouble, than in the old way.
Hard Soap. Take eight pounds of soft soap--if you wish it nice, use that made of olive oil--boil it two hours with six pounds of common salt, and it will make five pounds of hard soap. Add a little rosin when you melt it over, and if you wish it nice, scent it with fragrant oil.
The Modern Farmer, John Lauris Blake, 1854
Potash makes soft soap, with grease, and soda forms hard soap.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy, Catherine Beecher, 1841.
The grease for this purpose may be secured by saving all drippings and fat not used in a family. This can be melted up, and poured into weak ley, and when cold set away. Some persons keep a barrel, or half barrel, for soap-grease. Weak ley should be kept in this barrel, and a cover over it. To make soft soap, take in the proportion of one pailful of ley to three pounds of fat. Melt the fat and pour in the ley by degrees. Let it boil steadily, all day, till it is roppy. If it is not boiled enough, when cold it will turn to ley and sediment. While boiling, there should always be a little oil on the surface. If this does not appear, add more grease. If there is too much, it can be skimmed off, when the soap is cold, it is done. It must then be put in a cool place, and stirred often, for several days.
The Kentucky Housewife, 1839 p. 440
Ashes that are taken off the hearth every morning, are not good for soap, as the lye is sure to be weak. Without good strong lye it is in vain to try to make good soap, for in every attempt there will be a failure. To have good lye, the ashes should be burnt thoroughly, and kept as clean as possible. When it has dripped from the gum, put it in a large iron pot or kettle, make it boiling hot, and if it will not readily eat off the soft part of a feather, when dipped into it, boil till it will: but if it will not eat the feather without boiling it down, the soap will not be good. Have the grease, whatever kind it may be, clean, put it in the lye while it is boiling, and boil it steadily till it becomes a thick soap, stirring it frequently. It is impossible to give an infallible rule as to the proportions as so much depends upon the strength of the lye and the quality of the grease. If it is too strong of lye, it will not thicken fast, and will sting your tongue smartly on tasting it; then put in more grease. To try when it is done, take some of it up in a spoon and hold it in the open air till it gets cold. By this rule you may tell when it is thick as you desire it. Or you may drop some from the paddle into a cup of cold water: if it is not any thing like done, it will readily unite with the water; but if it is done, or nearly so, it will remain in little cakes at the bottom of the cup: according to the thickness of the soap will the texture of the cakes be. Then you may dissolve it in the water, and if it is too weak, the grease will float on the top: then of course you must add more lye and boil it down again. This is the best way of making common soft of mushy soap for washing clothes.
To make hard cake soap, when your lye is strong enough to cause an egg to float on top, put in your grease three quarters of a pound of clean lard or tallow, which is the usual allowance to each gallon of lye. Boil it steadily and as fast as you can, without its boiling over the top, as it is very apt to do after it becomes thick: therefore as it thickens, moderate the boiling by withdrawing a part of the fire. Stir it very frequently, and in a few hours, if the proportions exactly suit, you will have good soap. Try it as directed for the soft soap: if it is too weak, add more lye, but if too strong, more lard is required, or it may be made to thicken by adding a little cold water. Age improves soap greatly, and the stronger it is, in reason, the better it will be when it is one or two years old. When you ascertain by cooling a little, that it is sufficiently thick, put in common salt in the proportion of one pint to three gallons of the soap. When it is completely dissolved, stir it well, pour the whole into a tub and set it by till next day; then put it in the kettle, melt it and cool it again, and when it is quite cold, cut it out in square cakes.
An inferior soft soap may be made by mixing together clean grease and strong lye, exposing it daily to the sun for a week or two, according to the quantity, and stirring it frequently. Another way to make soft soap is to have some clean lard or tallow in a kettle, make it boiling hot, and stir hard into it enough of the strongest lye to make it into good soap. This is the most speedy way of making soap, and for present use it answers very well.
The Frugal Housewife, 1832 p. 22/23
In the city, I believe, it is better to exchange ashes and grease for soap; but in the country, I am certain, it is good economy to make one's own soap. If you burn wood, you can make your own lye; but the ashes of coal is not worth much. Bore small holes in the bottom of a barrel, place four bricks around, and fill the barrel with ashes. Wet the ashes well, but not enough to drop; let it soak thus three or four days; then pour a gallon of water in ever hour or two, for a day or more, and let it drop into a pail or tub beneath. Keep it dripping until the color of the lye shows the strength is exhausted. If your lye is not strong enough, you must fill your barrel with grease ashes, and let the lye run through it. Some people take a barrel without any bottom, and lay sticks and straw across to prevent the ashes from falling through. To make a barrel of soap, it will require about five or six bushels of ashes, with at least four quarts of unslacked stone lime; if slacked double the quantity.
When you have drawn off a part of the lye, put the lime (whether slack or not) into two or three pails of boiling water, and add it to the ashes, and let it drain through.
It is the practice of some people, in making soap, to put the lime near the bottom of the ashes, when they first set it up; but the lime becomes like mortar, and the lye does not run through, so as to get the strength of it, which is very important in making soap, as it contracts the nitrous salts which collect in ashes, and prevents the soap from coming, (as the saying is.) Old ashes are very apt to be impregnated with it.
Three pounds of grease should be put into a pailful of lye. The great difficulty in making soap 'come' originates in want of judgement about the strength of the lye. One rule may be safely trusted--If your lye will bear up an egg, or a potato, so that you can see a piece of the surface as big as ninepence, it is just strong enough. If it sink below the top of the lye, it is too weak, and will never make soap; if it is buoyed up half way, the lye is too strong; and that is just as bad. A bit of quick-lime, thrown in while they lye and grease are boiling together, is of service. When the soap becomes thick and ropy, carry it down cellar in pails and empty it into a barrel
Cold soap is less trouble, because it does not need to boil; the sun does the work of fire. The lye must be prepared and tried in the usual way. The grease must be tried out, and strained from the scraps. Two pounds of grease (instead of three) must be used to a pailful; unless the weather is very sultry, the lye should be hot when put to the grease. It should stand in the sun, and be stirred every day. If it does not begin to look like soap in the course of five or six days, add a little hot lye to it, if this does not help it, try whether it be grease that it wants. Perhaps you will think cold soap wasteful, because the grease must be strained; but if the scraps are boiled thoroughly in strong lye, the grease will all float upon the surface, and nothing is to be lost.
The Virginia Housewife, 1860 p. 178/79
Put on the fire any quantity of lye you choose that is strong enough to bear an egg--to each gallon, add three quarters of a pound of clean grease; boil it very fast, and stir it frequently--a few hours will suffice to make it good soap. When you find by cooling a little on a plate that it is a thick jelly, and no grease appears, put in salt in the proportion of one pint to three gallons--let it boil a few minutes, and pour it in tubs to cool--(should the soap be thin, add a little water to that in the plate, stir it well, and by that means ascertain how much water is necessary for the whole quantity; very strong lye will require water to thicken it, after the incorporation is complete; this must be done before the salt is added.) Next day, cut out the soap, melt it, and cool it again; this takes out all the lye, and keeps the soap from shrinking when dried. A strict conformity to these rules, will banish the lunar bugbear, which has so long annoyed soap makers. Should cracknels be used, there must be one pound to each gallon. Kitchen grease should be clarified in a quantity of water, or the salt will prevent its incorporating with the lye. Soft soap is made in the same manner, only omitting the salt. It may also be made by putting the lye and grease together in exact proportions, and placing it under the influence of a hot sun for eight or ten days, stirring it well four or five times a day.
Alkali. The ashes of sea plants have long been of value in commerce, from being used in the manufacture of hard soap, and also of glass. These soda ashes are called, in Spain, alkali, which name has thus been given to soda, and thence to potash and ammonia, all which are called alkalies; and all three have very similar properties. They have a bitter, acrid and burning taste... [Manual of Agriculture, for the School, the Farm, and the Fireside, George B. Emerson and Charles L. Flint, 1862.]
BRADFORD PLACE
MODERN SOAP MAKING
