Hard Soap
Have fifteen pounds of clean fat to twenty gallons of clear strong ley;
let it boil until thick, when put in half a peck of coarse salt; if it
does not curdle in two hours, put in more salt till it does, then pour
it out in a tub to cool till the next day, when put on your pot with
some weak ley, cut the soap out of the tub and boil it in this an hour,
then put it in the tub, let it get cold, cut it in squares and put it on
a board to dry. Unless you have plenty of ashes and soap-fat, it is much
cheaper to buy hard soap than to make it. If you have but a barrel full
of ashes you can make a barrel of soap, bore a hole in the bottom of a
barrel, put a few sticks across, when half full of ashes put in a quart
of lime and some water; keep the hole plugged up till you are ready to
make the soap.
You can have a barrel of ashes put in the cellar in winter to use for
washing and scrubbing, keep a tub under it to hold the ley as it drops.
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