“Lye soap! That’ll scrub your hide clean off!”

Prior to the modern soap making of today, soap making in the 1800’s and early 1900’s was a utilitarian household chore. It was standard for families to make soap to both bathe with and to use for household cleaning. Soap was traditionally made by boiling together lard, rendered and cleaned from butchered animals or from grease drippings collected throughout the year, and homemade lye (liquid potash) which was made from pouring water over ashes and collecting the brown liquid that was leached out. This didn’t make a hard soap like we have today; it made a soft or gel-like soap. The soft soap was stored in a barrel or other container and scooped out for use. The soft soap was made into a hard soap by adding salt and boiling it down. The success of colonial soap making was dependent on obtaining the correct balance between the lye and the fats.The process did not involve precise measuring and it sometimes required several attempts before a suitable batch was made. Today, the art of making homemade soap is usually done for pleasure and the desire to make more natural, healthy choices.

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