MAKING SOAP FROM RENDERED FAT
Question.—C. J. B. writes: Can you give me a formula for making soap? I have a surplus stock of rendered fat that I would like to convert into soap.
(Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden.)
Answer.—We will give a very good formula for making soft soap and hard soap.
To 20 pounds of clear grease or tallow take 17 pounds of pure white potash. Buy the potash in as fine lumps as it can be procured and place it in the bottom of the soap barrel, which must be water-tight and strongly hooped. Boil the grease and pour it boiling hot upon the potash then add two large pailfuls of boiling hot water; dissolve 1 pound of borax in 2 quarts of boiling hot water and stir all together thoroughly. Next morning add 2 pailfuls of cold water and stir for half an hour; continue this process until a barrel containing 36 gallons is filled. In a week, or even in less time, it will be ready for use. The borax, and also one pound of rosin, can be turned into the grease while the grease is boiling.
Soap made in this manner is a first-rate article, and has a good body. The grease must be tried out, free from scraps, ham rinds, bones, or any other similar kind of matter; then the soap will be as thick as jelly, and almost as clear. To make soft soap hard put into a kettle four pailfuls of soft soap, and stir in it by degrees about one quart of common salt. Boil until all the water is separated from the curd, remove the kettle from the fire and draw off the water with a siphon (a yard or so of rubber hose will answer); then pour the soap into a wooden form in which muslin has been placed. For this purpose a wooden box sufficiently large and tight, may be employed. When the soap is firm turn out to dry, cut into bars with a brass wire and let it harden. A little powdered rosin will assist the soap to harden and give it a yellow color. This must be added in the kettle when the soap is boiled. If the soft soap is very thin, more salt should be added.