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Classic
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page 187
several days. When you are ready to make soap, have a large pot of water, which
must be kept boiling, and put it on as fast as it will bear; save the strongest
ley by itself; (if the ley will float an egg, it will answer;) have your
soap-fat laying in strong ley through the winter; put a gallon of this in a
large pot, and put to it a gallon of the strongest ley; let it boil an hour,
stirring it often, then put in two gallons more of strong ley; when this has
boiled, put in weak ley till the pot is full; let it boil an hour or two slowly,
and be careful that it does not go over; cool some on a plate, and if thick, it
is done, but if not, boil it longer. Put it away in a tight barrel, and prepare
to make more soap; if you have two large pots both of them can be kept going at
the same time. Several barrels of soap can be made from one ley stand. A large
oil cask is good to keep soap in. If a barrel leaks, set it under a spout in a
rain, or fill it with water. It is of the greatest importance to keep the
soap-fat in strong ley. Have an oil barrel in the cellar, half full of strong
ley, and put in cracklings, bacon skins, pot skimmings, beef bones, or any
scraps; when eaten by ley it will take but little boiling. It is much the
easiest and safest way, where there are children, to make the soap without
boiling. Put four gallons of soap-fat that has been eaten with ley, in a barrel
with eight gallons of strong ley, stir it two or three times a day, for a week
or two, then fill it up with weaker ley; you may have several barrels making at
a time, so as always to have some for use; it takes some time to make it in this
way. But if you are careful, and once get ahead, you need not boil the soap
unless you prefer it so; if your ley is not strong, dissolve potash in hot water
and add to strengthen it.
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