HOW TO MAKE SOAP

Soap making is yet another down-home pursuit that allows you to feel good inside because you get to recycle and create at the same time. It's also an operation that can be just as small-scale and simple or as large and sophisticated as you want to make it . . . anything from throwing ashes into the cookout frying pan to carefully measuring rose geranium petals into a precisely controlled batch of bar soap. Perhaps best of all, this homemade cleaner contains none of the phosphates, NTA, still-caustic sodas and other additives that made today's detergents so dangerous to the environment. Real homemade soap is all natural, all organic and as welcome on the homestead as a compost pile.

GENERAL NOTES ON SOAPMAKING

1. Never use lye on aluminum utensils (it acts on them). For small batches of soap, enameled or granite ware is suitable . . . for larger batches, an iron kettle may be used.

2. There need never be a failure in soapmaking. If separation occurs, ingredients can be reclaimed.

3. Remember that lard is the melted and clarified fat of swine and tallow the hard, coarse fat from sheep or cows (usually from around the kidneys and loins). Before tallow dries out, it's called suet. Rendering fat is simply clarifying it by melting.

4. The following fats are listed in order of their desirability for soapmaking: tallow, lard, their combinations, olive oil, other vegetable oils. Mineral oils will not make soap and poultry fat should be combined with other fats since soap made from it alone is soft and spongy.