Soap
It requires some care and experience to have good soap; but when you
once get beforehand, it is easy to keep up the supply if the ashes are
good. The leystand should be made of cedar or pine boards, in the shape
of a mill-hopper, and have holes bored in the bottom for the ley to run
through; have four posts planted in the ground to support it; let it be
high enough for a small tub to set under.
If you cannot have it under a shed, there should be a tight cover of
boards to protect it from the rain. Put some sticks in the bottom of the
leystand, and some straw, and pack in a bushel of ashes, then half a
peck of lime, and when it is half full of ashes, put in two buckets of
water, and another when you get near the top; pack it well, and put on
some more water; then cover it over; pour on hot water three times a day
for several days.
When you are ready to make soap, have a large pot of
water, which must be kept boiling, and put it on as fast as it will
bear, save the strongest ley by itself, (if the ley will float an egg,
it will answer,) have your soap-fat laying in strong ley through the
winter, put a gallon of this in a large pot, and put to it a gallon of
the strongest ley; let it boil an hour, stirring it often, then put in
two gallons more of strong ley, when this has boiled, put in weak ley
till the pot is full, let it boil an hour or two slowly, and be careful
that it does not go over, cool some on a plate, and if thick, it is
done, but if not, boil it longer. Put it away in a tight barrel, and
prepare to make more soap, if you have two large pots both of them can
be kept going at the same time. Several barrels of soap can be made from
one ley stand.
A large oil cask is good to keep soap in. If a barrel
leaks, set it under a spout in a rain, or fill it with water. It is of
the greatest importance to keep the soap-fat in strong ley. Have an oil
barrel in the cellar, half full of strong ley, and put in cracklings,
bacon skins, pot skimmings, beef bones, or any scraps, when eaten by ley
it will take but little boiling. It is much the easiest and safest way,
where there are children, to make the soap without boiling. Put four
gallons of soap-fat that has been eaten with ley, in a barrel with eight
gallons of strong ley, stir it two or three times a day, for a week or
two, then fill it up with weaker ley, you may have several barrels
making at a time, so as always to have some for use, it takes some time
to make it in this way.
But if you are careful, and once get ahead, you
need not boil the soap unless you prefer it so, if your ley is not
strong, dissolve potash in hot water and add to strengthen it.
|
