Vegie-Lard Combo Soap

Ingredients:

4 oz. Coconut Oil
4 oz. Olive Oil
8 oz. Lard
6 oz. Water
2.25 oz Lye (sodium hydroxide)

Instructions:

• While wearing safety goggles and neoprene gloves, combine solid lye and liquid, stir well. Set aside and allow to cool (100°F to 125°F). This is best done outside while you are standing upwind.
  
• Combine oils and heat gently. Once the fats and oils are melted allow the temperature to drop to 100°F to 125°F.
  
• Combine lye solution and melted oils. Be careful not to splash while combining the mixtures. Stir until the mixture traces. If tracing takes more than 15 minutes, which it often does, stir for the first 15 minutes, then stir for 5 minutes at 15 minute intervals. Tracing looks like a slightly thickened custard, not instant pudding but a cooked custard. It will support a drop, or your stir marks for several seconds. Once tracing occurs...
  
• Pour raw soap into your prepared molds. After a few days the soap can be turned out of the mold. If the soap is very soft, allow it to cure for a few days to firm the outside.
  
• Cut soap into bars and set the bars out to cure and dry. This will allow the bar to firm and finish saponification. Place the bars on something that will allow them to breathe.
  
• Allow soap to cure for 2 to 3 weeks, or until the pH of the soap is in the range of 7.0 to 9.0. Soap which has a pH of less than 7.0 often has large amounts of excess fat which can go rancid.