recipe question

[izzy2]

This comes from MichelleB's Shortening and Shea Sudsy Soap Recipe. I had originally posted in the recipes but no one answered so hoping some one can help me.

Originally Posted by michelleB

I

Superfat: I did a 4.5% superfat on this recipe because I used full Goat Milk as the flluid and didn't want the extra fat from the milk to interfere with my suds negatively. This way, I got a really creamy lather with a lot of bigger bubbles too, instead of just the creamy by itself. Hope that makes sense!

When you say you did a 4.5% superfat what does this mean?

Not sure if I read this right but do you have to freeze the goat's milk? If so, why?

[Meridith]

To say that you superfatted your soap means that you have left a certain amount of oils and butters in the soap after the lye has saponified the rest of the oils. The more you superfat, the more conditioning a bar can become. But it can also affect the soap's lathering ability and the chance for DOS. If you use a 0% superfat, you would leave no extra oils or butters in the soap which would make a more cleansing bar.

Superfatting is also called taking a lye discount.

You do not have to freeze gm but must be careful when using it as it can very easily overheat. IMO It is best to soap with gm frozen or very cold and with your lye and oils and butters at room temperature.

[eugenia]

To make it even simpler, if you look at www.soapcalc.com, up at the top right it has super fat/discount percentage. The default is 5%. The poster changed it to 4.5% to account for the extra fat in the goat milk.

As for the GM question, maybe Meridith will chime back in. She does a lot of milk soaps.

e

[Meridith]

To make it even simpler, if you look at www.soapcalc.com, up at the top right it has super fat/discount percentage. The default is 5%. The poster changed it to 4.5% to account for the extra fat in the goat milk.

As for the GM question, maybe Meridith will chime back in. She does a lot of milk soaps.

e

e - you must be tired from the holiday. You silly goose I did answer the question about whether you have to use frozen gm. :pLook at the last paragraph in my post. :rolleyes2

But I will expand my response further.

GM is best soaped frozen or cool to keep it from overheating but does not have to be frozen. You can use canned, fresh, raw or powdered. My preference is for raw - straight from the goat herself. Certain ingredients in soap like GM or honey are known acceleratants and will cause your soap to heat up. If the soap overheats, your oils can separate and you can get a volcano like eruption from your batch. And then you will either throw that batch out or learn all about rebatching.

When this happens, it is not pretty and smells horrible. When I soap with gm, I actually prefer to add my lye to it while it is frozen. I add it very slowly too so that my milk won't heat too fast and curdle. If I am not soaping with full gm (meaning only a portion of my liquid is gm), I will add my gm very cold and at trace.

Also, I always try to avoid gel with my gm soaps. I don't insulate my molds and put them in the refrigerator. To gel or to not gel is a personal preference. I like my milk soaps to not gel - I like the creamier look to them than I get when I gel.

If you use powdered, just reconstitute it down. It can either be added to your lye solution or at trace. Even reconstituted powdered gm can overheat so take care to keep your mixture cool.

[eugenia]

e - you must be tired from the holiday. You silly goose I did answer the question about whether you have to use frozen gm. :pLook at the last paragraph in my post. :rolleyes2

Totally worn out!