Ostrich Soap

One of the reasons for making your own soap is that it truly is better than store bought, especially when ostrich and emu oil are used. When commercial manufacturers make soap, they take out most of the glycerine because it is more expensive and they can make more money by selling it separately. Many of you buy glycerine soap for its moisturising effects. All soap making formulas make a percentage of glycerine (I think about 17 percent). The main difference between home made and manufactured, besides the fact that we can use our own oils, is that we leave in the glycerine.

We have all heard of the benefits of using emu oil for pain relief, moisturising skin, etc. so why not make soap out of emu oil? I believe in the benefits of using emu oil but have had almost the exact benefits by using ostrich oil. I developed a formula for making emu oil soap except I also went farther and included ostrich oil since I have ostriches and no emus. I have tried several different formulas and have settled on one that works well and is less costly to make. It is composed of approximately 1/4 ostrich oil, 1/4 emu oil, 1/4 beef tallow, and 1/4 vegetable oil. This can be changed around many different ways but this seems to work well and is a cost that is reasonable. The use of coconut oil will give more bubbles but won't clean any better. Using lesser amounts of ostrich oil and emu oil would probably be as good because the oils that are completely converted into soap are probably the same end product. The amounts of lye will change with different formulas so don't change anything without knowing the effects.

I will be giving the amounts in grams but this doesn't have to be perfectly accurate to get soap. I try to be exact so the soap is not too oil heavy or lye heavy. Be sure to be extremely careful when working with lye because it is as bad as acid. Actually lye is a strong base and is the exact opposite of acid but just as potent. All you have to do is be careless one time and you will never make that mistake again. Hopefully the first careless mistake will be a tiny drop on your hand and not a big drop in your eye. If you do as I did and get several types of moulds (hardware stores sell them) and order lots of fragrance oils and then buy several stainless steel pans, you will have to make a lot of soap to break even. You need nothing special to mould the soap and anything will work for mixing except aluminium.

I am giving exact instructions and I will try to leave nothing out but please think this through before you start and ask questions if

You aren't sure about the directions. The process of developing a formula for good soap isn't easy. The saponification number is the number of units of lye to exactly transform the amount of fat or oil into soap and has exact measurements for each different fat or oil.

It has to be figured into the formula. I would like the soap to be 1 percent fat heavy so it isn't harsh to your skin. I use the Red Devil Lye. Be sure to use only sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide will work but the amounts will be different. Red Devil lye is found in the grocery store. The amount of scent that I give may or may not be enough depending on the strength you are using.

I measure all the ingredients, as I need to use them so I will list them in that order. Be sure you use clean and not rancid oils.

Measure
300 grams ........ ostrich oil
250 grams ........ emu oil
300 grams ........ canola oil
300 grams ........ beef tallow
50 grams ........ olive oil

Mix these into a pan and warm them over the stove. A double boiler works well but any way to heat them works OK - just be safe! The temperature needs to be about 120 degrees. I use the olive oil to make tiny bubbles.

Measure 494 grams of cold water (distilled water is best but not necessary). Put the "cold" water into a pan (not aluminium) that is big enough to hold all the ingredients at one time.

Measure 192.8 grams of lye and pour into the water slowly while stirring constantly. The lye will dissolve completely in about 1-2 minutes and the water will turn almost clear.

You won't need to heat this because it will get hot enough to burn your hands through the pan if you are holding it. Be careful with this mixture because it will burn like acid.

Place this pan aside to cool while you get the rest of the ingredients ready to mix.

Measure 50 grams of emu oil and 50 grams of your scenting oil together in a cup and heat this near 120 degrees. Set this cup aside while waiting for the rest to be mixed and get to the trace stage.

This is somewhat like the softball stage for candy making.

When the lye mixture and the oils mixture get to the approximate temperature of 120 degrees, pour the oil mixture into the pan containing the lye mixture.

Stir for 5-10 minutes (Many instructions say to stir constantly but I stir 5-10 minutes, wait 5 minutes, stir 5 minutes, etc.).

This may take up to 1.5-2 hours to get to the trace stage.

The idea is to keep the lye and oil in suspension together. You want the mixture to be so thick that there is no way for any part to settle out.

Trace stage is the point, which the mixture starts getting really thick. If you take a spoonful and string it across the mixture in the bowl, it will somewhat stay on top of the rest of the bowl.

At trace stage, 85-90 percent of the fat and lye has become soap and glycerine. This mixture will still be caustic because there has been more than enough lye added.

The reason for this is that we are making 1 percent fat heavy soap.

We kept out 50 grams of emu oil and 50 grams of scenting oil to "superfat" the soap. The reason for superfatting is that, if any oil isn't converted to soap, we want the emu oil left.

This soap should show some of the emu oils benefits.

I have had several people tell me that it helps their wrists when they are sore.

At trace stage, mix in the extra emu oil and scent from the cup we set aside. Mix well and add colouring if you want, then pour into moulds. The colouring could be just food colouring but it doesn't remain true to colour. You can buy soap colouring. The moulds could be just glass cake pans etc. Do not use aluminium!

Let the bars set for 24-48 hours and take them out and cut them into shape or, if there are in the shape you want, let them sit for 3-5 weeks.

You can wrap them in plastic (saran wrap) if you want. They will get a white, chalky, covering if exposed to the air but this will wash off quickly.

If you have any questions, please contact me before attempting to use my formula. There is nothing secret here but I want to be sure no one gets hurt

There is no magic in making soap but it does take time and you have to be extremely careful. Your first attempt will yield perfect bars if you measure carefully and follow the instructions.

This will yield about 15-20 bars depending on the size of each. You can double this recipe and it will work as well but the first time, you may want to go by the formula.

You could add a little corn meal for grit if you want better grease cutting hand soap. If you want to change any oil in this formula, contact me with your proposed changes and I will give you the change in the amount of lye.

I believe that we need to develop and use as many products as we can from our birds if we want to help our industry. Thank You,

Our thanks to Bill Spainhoward for allowing us to reproduce this recipe

Bill can be contacted at:
Ridgewood Ratites
9282 Ridgewood Rd.
Henderson,
KY 42420
U.S.A.
Email: oe1@oe1.com
http://www.oe1.com
http://www.bigbirds.com/ridgewood
Tel: + 1 (270) 826 6239