Teach Soap

I'm very new to soaping but not okra. I've made pureed okra and it turned into a huge slime ball but freezing it may change that. Will be interesting to see what happens. My other thought is I would be concerned about the hairy fibers on the outside (unless it is a naked variety of okra). I know the fibers cause me to break out and itch when in contact with them to much. But it could be fine for others. Hmmm can't wait to see how it works out. Good luck it's very interesting indeed.

Do you use the pureed vegetables in place of the water to mix with the lye? Do you discount the water and use that much less water with your lye then add the vegetables at trace? I want to use pureed pumpkin but need to research some more on how to go about it.
Thanks for your help!
Sherri

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

**Okra Soap Update**
Well, Alabama Okra Soap looks more like Mississippi Mud Soap .
Kept my temps low and upon pouring, it was a dull, mid-dark green. Stuck it straight into the freezer and when I pulled it out the next day, it was olive green/brown. Let it sit out and it is a "nice" (haha) brown. And it even overheated IN the freezer! It has a ridge-crack down the top middle AND a lovely "power circle" (thanks for the term, Linda).
I'm not fond of the scent either (EOs of rosemary & lemon & litsea cubeba), but son likes it. I'm going to try it anyway, as I put cornmeal in it and I'm curious as to what it did (if anything) to the texture of the soap.
I told hubby that I dislike the soap, but am thankful I gave it a shot!

Why would it have overheated in the freezer? I didn't use any milk or honey. Is there that much natural sugar in okra??? Even my GM honey soap doesn't overheat in the freezer.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Darn! I was really hoping the soap would turn out ok.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

We would tend to think that is was the sugars that caused it to overheat...so I looked it up since we do not grow okra up here. My book lists okra as having 5.8gm of carbs (sugar) per 1/2 cup. Now by comparsion 1 raw carrot has 7.3 gms of carbs. Have you ever made carrot soap with this recipe? It would be an interesting experiment.
And if anyone is curious, carrots were originally purple and they contain iron which is unusual for a veggie.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I would imagine even when you calculate the carbs that are digestible you still have the mucilaginous carbohydrates to think about. The slimy texture that comes from members of the Malvaceae family (marshmallow, okra, etc) is the result of long chain carbohydrates. Basically sugar chains that go on and on and on and on, but aren't many branched like starches, or short like sweet sugars, or built in with side linkages to other chains like cellulose and other plant fibers. The slime would easily hydrolyze down into smaller sugars in the presence of the lye, and jack up the sugar content of your soap, hence the overheating. Just the hydrolysis alone is probably exothermic.

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Just call me "Apo"

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Yeah... what Apo said! Gooey veggies have lots of sugars in them! And goo! Ick! On the bright side, cracks and power circles aren't detrimental to the soap, so its alll good!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Cornmeal in okra soap. I love it!

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Laura<3

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Making me hungry!!!

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Laura<3