Goat's milk soap and the lye calculator.

by Stacey
(Calgary, AB)

I want to make a batch of goats milk soap and I know that I want to add my lye to the water instead of the goats milk (it sounds easier and gives less room for error of burning the milk).

My problem is that I'm not sure how to put this info into the lye calculator. Do I put the goats milk into the liquid or would it go under bovine milk fats? I've noticed with some recipes they add the amount of lye to a small amount of water and then add the milk in at trace.

I guess my big question is how do they come up with that amount of water? Thanks for your help and I hope my question isn't too long/confusing.

Answer:

It sounds more confusing than it actually is!

First...adding goats milk will add extra fat to your recipe. I keep the superfat % at no more than 5% when creating a milk based recipe.

You do not add goats milk into the lye calculator at all when making the recipe, you will simply be replacing a portion of the water with the goat's milk. If a recipe calls for 300 grams of water, I replace about 100 grams of the water with goats milk that has powdered goats milk added to it so it is more concentrated and put it aside to use later.

The lye is mixed with the remaining 200 grams of water and this mixture is added to the oils.

Once the soap reaches a thin trace, I will add the concentrated goats milk (slightly warmed) and continue blending until a medium trace is reached. I then add the remaining ingredients.

As for figuring out how much water you can use to add the lye too...I've heard that no less than half the water should be used. I like to err closer to 2/3 of the water since less water results in a quick trace and most of my recipes already trace rather fast, especially when using a stick blender.

Hope that explanation makes sense,
Cathy