Tina’s Age Old Milk And Honey Soap

Tina’s Age Old Milk And Honey Soap

Many people these days opt for the oil based soaps but I have personally chosen to remain with the old fashioned method of using animal fats and lye. This gives a much harder and longer lasting soap and is readily available to those of us that homestead and butcher our own animals. Animal fats can also be purchased relatively cheaply from a good butcher and only require you to render it all down ready to use for soap making. I have done this since our temporary move to the city. If you are able to make your own lye from wood ash also, then your soap making becomes virtually free of any cost apart from the energy used for the processing.

The oils that people choose nowadays to make their soaps from are very expensive and in a homesteading situation (especially where one is trying to be as frugal as possible) are unsustainable which is why I chose to stick with the tried and true old fashioned methods.

However in saying this, the choice on how you make your base soap is entirely up to you. The process I am going to discuss here today is what is called “Hand-Milling”. This is the process where you take your base soap which has already well cured and transform it into magnificent soaps.

Today we will deal with making Milk and Honey Soap. The process is extremely simple and worth the little bit of effort that is needed.

The combination of milk and honey is an age old recipe for softening the skin.  The soap itself is fairly soft and retains a pleasant honey aroma.

340g ( ¾ pound) grated base soap

255g (9 ounces) milk (either cow, sheep or goat)

59g  (¼ cup) honey

Melt together in a medium sized saucepan, the basic soap, milk and honey and stir well.  (To emphasise the golden colour, add the honey and then scorch the mixture slightly by continuing to heat the soap.)  Stir until the soap has completely melted and is fairly thick but not clumping in order to prevent the honey from settling to the bottom.  Pour it immediately into the moulds. Allow to harden at least overnight before removing from the moulds. Place on a rack and allow to dry completely, preferably for a few weeks to ensure a hard and long lasting soap.

My special notes here:

I found the above weights to be the best to handle at a time as some soaps start to set very quickly.  When Mixed pour into your moulds.  I find it best to sit them in the freezer for a couple of hours to speed up the hardening.  As soon as they are hard you remove them from the moulds and set to dry once again.  The longer you can leave them the longer they will last when using them.

Try to be patient with the hardening process because you soaps will last far longer, the longer you can leave them before using. I prefer to dry the soaps for at least 2 months before using.

Tina