Most
of the recipes you will find today for soapmaking call for "One pound
case of lye." Well, unfortunately, on the frontier, there were many
times and places when cans of lye were not available. In fact, with
lye being made from water and wood ashes, selling cans of lye on the
frontier was like selling refrigerators to Eskimos.
First, one must construct an "Ash Drip" or "Ash Hopper". The hopper
must be constructed of wood, as lye will eat nearly anything it is put
in, except maybe glass or wood. At the bottom of the "v" put in an inch
or two of straw or dried hay, so that the lye will not leak out into
the drip container.
Fill
the hopper as full as possible with layers of ashes and straw. You should
have a ceramic or glass jug to catch the lye drippings form the bottom
of your hopper. Pour in one or two gallons of water until it just begins
to drip into the catch container. (The ash hopper should probably
be about a twenty-gallon size). The water will come out kind of
brown and dirty looking, that's lye. The rule of thumb was to use two
pounds of grease (or beef or mutton tallow) for every gallon
of lye.
While
stirring constantly in a Dutch oven or some appropriate boiling kettle,
boil for 45 minutes or longer, if necessary, until it thickens, like
jelly. As it is cooling, at this point, you may wish to add a few or
several drops of peppermint oil to give it a pleasant smell. The soap
has no unpleasant odor anyway when it has completely cooled, however,
adding peppermint oils or other flavors were not uncommon. If a soft
soap was desired, simply do not boil it so long, so that it does not
set there, and a plank was placed on top, keeping out the weather. If
a hard soap was desired, boil it down until it becomes very thick, then
pour out into a shallow wooden box. When it has set up, cut it into
bars or blocks with a sharp, thin bladed knife or wire. The time required
for the soap to set up may be anywhere from overnight to a week or so
longer.
