[Sca-cooks] OT: soap (was: Stinky hands)

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Kelsey wrote:
>If you're going to add botanicals to cold process or hot process soap it's
>a good idea to soak the botanicals in a little oil (just enough to wet the
>botanicals).  Soak the botanicals (or coffee) in while you're bringing the
>mixture to trace.  At light trace add the slurry of oil and
>botanicals.  Soaking will keep the botanicals from absorbing oil from the
>soap mix.

OK, what's "trace"? I've made soap from lye and vegetable fats, so i
at least know the process, but maybe not the jargon. My friend and i
added "stuff" to our soaps, so we called them "salad soaps" - blended
cucumber, blended apples, black poppy seeds...

Because they were half olive oil, they ended up being fairly gentle
on the skin. They didn't smell like a flower patch, but, then, we
didn't want them to. We used plastic juice bottles as molds.

Anyway, so, what's "trace"?

Anahita
who's still wondering who the Iron Chefs will be in Las Vegas...