Teach Soap

I am making hand milled soap, the recipe said to heat water to 180 degrees and add grated soap. It then says to melt the soap with minimum stirring. When the soap and water have blended and the mixture is clear and runny to add the other ingredients.
What happened is it never melted but got very thick and became hard to stir. It never reached a runny state. It did get clear. I have added another cup of water to hopefully get it melted again-it didn't work and didn't blend. Can any one help me? I hope I haven't ruined the batch.

Those are very odd instructions, honestly. And it sounds like a LOT of water. Where did that recipe come from?

I very rarely handmill - only if I'm saving an otherwise ruined batch - and for ten pounds of freshly grated soap, I add roughly 1/4 cup water. Any more than that, and curing takes forever and you can end up with warped bars from shrinkage.

It never gets truly liquid. Semi-solid and "gloppable" is about it.

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With that much water, it would be good for laundry soap. For rebatching you do not need that much water. It will end up looking like snot. I posted direction here somewhere for a rebatch in a boiling bag.
How old was the soap? The older the soap, the harder it is to dissolve.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

The soap was made 6 weeks ago. It is a castile -type soap.
The recipe called for 20 oz of water to 40 oz of grated soap. It did reach the "gloppable" stage. I know now I should have not added more water
It never hardened-it is more gel-like now.

the recipe came from a book called Handmade Soap by Country Living

pwelch- Hi! I've had similar experiences and posted a similar question. I got alot of help and some good links. Check my post "Trouble with Rebatching" from April 22, 09. Unfortunately I don't think it's as easy and smooth as some books make it out to be!

With that type of a recipe, that's what you will get, a gel.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

oh, do look for the boil-in bag instructions - that method works very well!

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http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

cookie shaped patties soap sounds pretty damn cool if you we're rebatching oatmeal soap

perhaps toss in some raisin shaped "spice" scented soap crumbles and oila! Oatmeal Cookie Soaps!

Thanks for all your help! I have looked at the websites to see the boil in bag instructions... So could I take my "blob" and boil it some more (20 min.) and hopefully come out with some moldable soap?

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I agree. Mine was about 25 minutes and I still got stickiness. Reminded me of moist dough. Which was fine for me since I wasn't prepared with a mold. Shaped them into the above mentioned "patties" hehe.