02/14/2025
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Colonial women were burdened with the task of making soap for the family. Women made soap from leftover animal fat and lye.
Throughout the year the women saved all of the grease and wood ashes that would make the lye One barrel of soap normally required about six bushels of ashes and twenty-four pounds of grease. The wood ashes were put into a barrel with layers of straw between them. Then a little water was poured in every once in a while. There was a seep hole at the bottom of the barrel that the lye would slowly drip out of. The straw in the barrel kept the large pieces of ash from clogging the seep hole
The grease and lye were then boiled together in a large iron kettle over an outdoor fire. The soap was made outdoors because the smell was strong and terrible.
The grease and lye mixture was stirred constantly in one direction. The process of making soap was a difficult one and not always successful. It was common for neighbors to wish the woman next door good luck on her soap.
This process created a soft soap that felt like a clean jelly and showed no trace of the grease that was used to create it. The soft soap was used for monthly washings. The household wash accumulated and the washing was done once a month, or in some households once every three month
The women also made a hard soap with bayberry tallow and added salt, this soap was especially desirable for toilet use.
However, this was rarely done in order to preserve the salt for cooking. The most difficult part of making soap came from the judgment on the strength of the lye. The strength of the lye was tested on an egg or a potato to see if it was strong enough. If the lye could perforate the egg or potato, it was strong enough . It was very common to say "We had bad luck with our soap," or “we had good luck with our soap”
