Instead of a laborious and depressing sunday sermon I may just make soap today.
I have so many molds that I bought a tool chest and turned it into my mold index. Silicone molds are insanely tough but they are also fragile and I don’t want some enterprising mouse to come poop in one, or something. So a locked steel trunk seemed like a good idea – besides, it lets me pretend to be “organized.”
When you’re making a batch it’s always a good idea to have more molds than you need, ready to go. That way you don’t wind up with a pan full of congealed soap. Oddly, soap is very hard to clean out of things until it has sat long enough to saponify.
Pictured open end up is one of my legendary “lost donut process” donut molds. If anyone wants a steel donut or a brass donut I can provide one, just let me know. (The hard part about brass and steel donuts is polishing them with steel wool – it’s a lot of work. So if you want one you’ll get an unpolished one.)
There are also some things you want to have at room temperature and other things you need to warm to melt.
Cocoa butter (in the kettle!), shea butter, beeswax – those all congeal very fast. Almond oil congeals very slowly. Your recipe needs to take into account local conditions.
It occurs to me that I could make colored soapmascus but I’m not going to. I have enough trouble with the steel stuff, I don’t need to court disaster with my soap-making process, too.
When the molds are dry I’ll warm up the cocoa butter and measure out all the ingredients and make some soap!
Why bother pretending? The way I see it, as long as lack of organization doesn’t make it hard to find stuff, it’s fine.
Ieva Skrebele@#1:
The way I see it, as long as lack of organization doesn’t make it hard to find stuff, it’s fine.
I have been known to spend a certain amount of time rummaging through my collection of molds going, “no no that one no no no”
OK, in that case, you do have en example of when more organization is a good thing. Personally, I’m perfectly happy with my stuff being messy. Yet I cannot stand wasting time searching for stuff. The end result is a weird balance of my storage being exactly organized enough to never have any problems with finding things. And never more organized than absolutely necessary. I see no point in “organization for the sake of organization.”
The locked steel trunk is perfect for keeping the mice away, great idea… I store my molds on not-reachable-by-mice shelves. Most of mine are rubber, though… I am very old-fashioned. Although I made about half a dozen silicone molds last year. But I sent them to Ecuador, so I don’t need to worry about how they are stored.
Sounds like a fun and productive way to spend the day!
kestrel@#4:
Although I made about half a dozen silicone molds last year. But I sent them to Ecuador, so I don’t need to worry about how they are stored.
Silicone is such a delight to work with!
But, one thing: I left a bunch on a pad of paper and the oil sucked right out into the paper. Weird!
A brass donut sounds delicious, but I don’t think my teeth are up to the challenge.