Grandmother Keller’s Original Recipe

From the Kitchen of Gladys Vaughn Keller, soap maker, 1903-1989. Given as a wedding gift throughout her life.

White Lightening
Also known as the Poison Ivy Soap and Lye Soap

"If you want to do good in life, learn to be thrifty now. No need wasting money on frills you can make better at home."
~Gladys Vaughn Keller

Make soap in the fall on hog butchering day or the day after. Melt down the lard that has been trimmed off the hog. Cook that lard until all the little pieces of meat left in the fat are brown and crispy. Strain the crispies out of the hot, melted lard. Any left over pieces can cause your soap to go rancid, so strain it good. I pour mine through some muslin fabric while it is still warm. Let the kids eat those crispies right then while they are warm.

Fill your hopper with ashes, hickory is my favorite. Poor some rain water on the ashes and catch the liquid as it drips out the spout. The water will be caustic and corrosive. This is your lye water. DO NOT leave this water sitting around where children or animals can get to it. It is deadly if swallowed. Getting the lye water right takes some experiences, so if you use the “ashes method” it is best to have an expert soap maker around as you learn your way. You will need just under two gallons of strong lye water.

Alternative method for lye water:
You can use four cans (12 oz. each) of Red Devil Lye poured into two gallons of ice water if your prefer. If you use Red Devil, pour the lye into the water, not the water into the lye. The water will heat up so much you won’t be able to touch the container it is in, so make sure it is sitting in a place that it can cool down untouched, and set those jars in a wash tub just in case something happens and the jars break. You don’t want that lye water to get on anything. Stir the water constantly while you pour the lye in with a wooden spoon until the lye is completely dissolved. Cover your mouth and nose with a scarf or handkerchief while pouring and stirring the lye water. Start the lye water early in the day as it takes several hours to cool down.

Now weigh your lard. You will need 36 pounds of clean, melted lard. Put the lard in a large crock or enamel wash pan or canning kettle. Do not use aluminum or aluminum products in the soap making process. Aluminum will cause a chemical reaction and ruin your soap. The crock or pan should be large enough to hold about seven gallons of fluid. When the lard has cooled down to not-hardly-warm to the touch, pour the lye water, which has also cooled down to barely warm, into the lard real slow while someone stirs constantly with a big, long (about four feet) “cleaned” stick (cleaned of all bark). Keep your face as far away from the mix as possible and avoid any splashing.

Now stir that mix up ‘til it starts to saponify. Saponification is a chemical process that changes lard and lye into soap. The soap mix is very dangerous at this point. Do not get any of it on you or your clothes. Keep a gallon of vinegar at hand at all times. In fact, before you start to make soap, get that vinegar out and put it right in plain sight. If you get some soap mix on you rinse with vinegar. If you get lye water on you, rinse with vinegar. Vinegar is a strong acid. Lye is a strong alkaline. Mixed together they become neutral. This is chemistry. Wash all utensils with vinegar water when finished.

The stirring process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours depending on the temperature of the ingredients, the humidity outside, and the temperature outside. I’ve even had some batches take 12 hours. When the soap starts to trace (leaves a trail behind the stick as you stir), it is ready to pour. You don’t have to stir the entire time, but enough that the mix does not separate.

Now it is time to pour the soap into a mold. My soap box is a wooden box that measures 3 1/2’ x 1’ x 6”. Line your soap box with a piece of wet muslin fabric. Make sure the box is leak free. Let the soap cure for one week in the box. Then dump it out on a piece of fabric. Let it cure in a chunk for one more week. Now the soap is ready to cut into bars. Let the bars cure in the open air for one month before using. Store in a basket or box covered with paper or fabric to keep the dust off for the winter.

Caution: If there is a hard, very white spot, that may or may not be leaking lye water, you have a problem. This is a lye pocket, it can be caused by the temperatures not being just right when the ingredients were mixed, or not enough stirring during saponification. Either way, this soap is no good. It should be cut out and thrown away. Be careful not to get the lye water on you. Use vinegar water if you do. A lye pocket in the soap does not mean the entire batch is ruined - only the hard spots.

Once the soap is cured, there may be a light, white dust on the top of the bars. Gently shave this off with a thin knife. It is lye dust and should not be used. The rest of the bar is fine, in fact, this is the sign of a good soap.

This is best soap recipe I have found. It makes enough for a family of four to last for quite a spell.

Uses

• Cut the oil of poison ivy. Wash real good if you know you’ve gotten into poison ivy and you won’t get it. Wash real good if you’ve already gotten it and it will help clear it up.
• Grate some bars up when you have some sit down time and use for washing.
• I keep a bar by the wash tub and rub some right on really tough stains.
• No better cleaner for black grease.
• I cut some bars a little larger than bath size for scrubbing the outhouse and wood floors of the milk house.

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