If it sink
below the top of the lye, it is too weak, and will never make soap;
if it is buoyed up half way, the lye is too strong; and that is just
as bad. A bit of quick-lime, thrown in while the lye and grease are
boiling together, is of service. When the soap becomes thick and ropy,
carry it down cellar in pails and empty it into a barrel.
Cold soap is less trouble, because it does not need to boil; the sun
does the work of fire. The lye must be prepared and tried in the usual
way. The grease must be tried out, and strained from the scraps. Two
pounds of grease (instead of three) must be used to a pailful; unless
the weather is very sultry, the lye should be hot when put to the
grease. It should stand in the sun, and be stirred every day. If it
does not begin to look like soap in the course of five or six days,
add a little hot lye to it; if this does not help it, try whether it
be grease that it wants. Perhaps you will think cold soap wasteful,
because the grease must be strained; but if the scraps are boiled
thoroughly in strong lye, the grease will all float upon the surface,
and nothing be lost.
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