UTENSILS AND MATERIALS FOR SOAP MAKING Utensils for Soap Making.—A large iron soap kettle or a common wash boiler is a great convenience for mak ing soap in large quantities. Two or three smaller kettles can also be em ployed to advantage. A common meat chopper may be used to reduce soap to small pieces to make it dissolve readily. All of these utensils can, of course, be readily cleansed after using. A large iron set kettle is a great convenience on the farm for soap making and numerous other purposes. If fire is built so as to heat the kettle at the sides rather than in the mid dle, the contents will be much less likely to boil over. A ladle holding about a quart and a wooden paddle with a long handle for stirring are necessary. Also have at hand a glass dish or plate on which to cool a few drops of the liquid from time to time to test it.
Materials for Soap. — A consider able saving may be made by soap making at home, even if the materials are purchased. Mutton tallow, beef suet, and lard from pork scraps, and caustic soda or potash may be em ployed, and these ingredients cost very little. But homemade soap may be made for next to nothing by using kitchen drippings and scraps that would otherwise be wasted and by leaching lye from wood ashes.
To Make Potash Lye from Ashes.— Fit a half barrel or tub with a faucet near the bottom and make a filter in side about the mouth of the faucet with some bricks or stones covered with straw. Fill the tub with hard wood ashes. Ashes from oak wood are said to be the strongest, and those from the apple tree are said to make the whitest soap. When the tub is full pour over the ashes boiling water until it begins to run from the faucet. Shut the faucet and let the ashes soak. As they settle, add more ashes until the tub is again full. The longer the water stands before being drawn off the stronger the lye will be. Usually a few hours will be sufficient. The strength of the lye need not be always the same, as the alkali will only unite with a certain proportion of fat any way, and more lye can be added until all the fat is saponified. Lye that will float a fresh egg is regarded as of standard strength for soap mak ing.
To Make Potash.—If a recipe calls for potash and the commercial article is not at hand it may be made by boiling down the lye in a heavy iron kettle. After the water is driven off a dark, dry residue will remain which is known as " black salts." The heat must be kept up until this is melted, when the black impurities will be burned away and a grayish-white sub stance will remain. This is potash.
Potash soaps are, generally speak ing, soft soaps. When the native for ests were being cleared away in this country in colonial days (as also in Russia and in timber lands to-day), considerable quantities of commercial potash were made by this method. Our grandparents and great-grand parents used soft soap from home made potash almost exclusively. There is no doubt that in many localities it is still profitable to follow their ex ample.
To Make Soda Lye from Sal Soda. —Caustic soda is prepared commer cially by the action of quicklime on sal soda (sodium carbonate).
Soda lye can be made at home by the following process: First slake 1 quart of quicklime with 3 quarts of water, which will re duce the lime to the consistency of cream. Now dissolve 3 quarts of sal soda in 5 quarts of boiling water. Add the slaked lime, stirring vigorous ly, and keep the mixture at a boil un til the ingredients are thoroughly mingled. Allow the mixture to cool and settle, pouring the lye off the dregs. Caustic soda is produced from this lye by boiling down the lye until the water is evaporated, when a dry residue is left in the kettle.
To Preserve Grease. — Animal fats suitable for soap making may be ob tained by trying out beef suet, mut ton tallow, or pork scraps, straining the melted grease through a coarse linen cloth, and squeezing the scraps dry. Fat may be purified by boiling in water in which a little salt or alum has been added. When allowed to cool the pure fat will rise in a cake. This cake of fat, before it is put away in the grease tub, must be carefully dried from the water which adheres to it when lifted or it will not keep sweet. This is the best method of preserving soap grease.