Rebatch Gone Wrong
Here is my miserable story about the soap that is NOT going to make it to the shelf. Several days ago I made a double batch of Oatmeal, Milk & Honey soap and forgot to add the rice bran oil. Even as I was putting the oils together in the pot I was thinking that it was odd that I only had two liquid oils in this soap. I checked what I had written down – and there was my problem. I didn’t check the original recipe, only what I had written down!
Well, after the soap level wasn’t as high as usual in the mold, and the goat’s milk turned the soap orange, I realized my mistake.
I waited about a week to do anything about it because I HATE to re-batch. It’s such a pain. Especially with the enormous batch size that I make. Takes a lot of time, not to mention energy to use the oven. Well, Sunday afternoon was unseasonably cool, so I decided to just try re-melting one of the two logs. I started by cutting the soap into chunks that my salad shooter could process:
Soap chunks
Then, I started feeding the chunks into the salad shooter. I used a pot that was plenty large because the shredded soap takes up a lot of space:
Shredding soap
Next, I added the missing rice bran oil:
Pouring in rice bran oil
I put the pot in the oven at 200 degrees for about four hours. I pulled it out to stir every hour or so. This is what it looked like right before I put it in the mold:
Melted soap looks like cookie dough!
Then I smashed it back into the mold:
Soap in the mold
Tried to cut the soap, and it’s super crumbly now:
Oh great! Botched it again...
I’m guessing either I didn’t cook it long enough, or I should have added some liquid. Either way, Clean the World is about to get another box from me. I’m done messing with it!!
July 14th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Bummer! It’s so disappointing! It looks like the final product would be fine if it wasn’t so crumbly.
July 14th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Oh, no, what a waste that’d be if it wasn’t for Clean the World! Sounds like something I’d do, though, write something down incorrectly or forget something. I’m like that too.
I do have to say, I like the way it looks in the first photo, that orange looks like pumpkin pie to me.
.-= Larissa´s last blog post ..Blogs I Follow- Melinda Lancaster- Author and Poet =-.
July 14th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Isn’t it sad? Hubby’s advice was to chuck it from the beginning. After I told him how it turned out, he said, “Do I need to say anything?” Um, no.
July 14th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Oh no! I am sooooo sorry, no fun. I have had two batches, – yes two batches go south on me in the past two days. Not sure what the problem is – and no i don’t rebatch. Ugh!
July 14th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
That must be so depressing!!!
.-= Muthering Heights´s last blog post ..Example and Experience =-.
July 14th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
Oh, no, I feel for you!
I hate rebatching, it’s a last resort for me. Even when I do it I usually don’t get the results I want so most of my ruined batches go straight in the bin.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Bummer! I feel your pain. I think we’ve all had a batch go wrong at some point in time. The good news is that it’s still luxurious, hand made soap that Clean the World will be thankful for =)