MAKIN' SOAP ON THE HOMESTEAD

by DIXIE HAYWOOD

It went against my grain to throw out the tallow from a side of beef we bought, so I called our County Agent to see if he had any directions for making soap. To my surprise, he did; to my further surprise, they were easy.

I rendered the first batch of tallow by cutting it into chunks, filling the pan about one-third full of water and occasionally stirring the fat while it cooked at moderate heat. The stirring was a bit sloppy and the fat took quite a while to melt, so I ground subsequent batches of tallow in the meat grinder. This speeded up the process considerably because I could then get more in the pan, it was easier to stir and the fat melted more rapidly.

The melted tallow and water was sieved and cooled. When the fat had solidified, I lifted it off the top of the water . . . and it was ready for soap.

While I was heating 6 pounds of the rendered fat (13-1/2 cups) to 120-130 degrees, I stirred together a 13 oz. can of lye and 5 cups of cold water and heated that mixture to 90-95 degrees.

When the fat and the lye were at their respective proper temperatures, I slowly poured the lye solution into the fat and stirred the resulting blend with a wooden spoon. In about 30 minutes the soap was thick enough to hold its shape so I poured it into a heavy cardboard box lined with a towel wrung out in cold water. It is important to NOT use aluminum utensils when making soap as lye reacts rather violently with this metal.