Soap Making Recipes and Tips for the Homesteader

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on September 19, 2020
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PHOTO: FOTOLIA/STOKAJI
Soapmaking can be easy if you follow these instructions.

Making soap 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.

Tips for Making Soap 

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