Goat milk
Replaces some or all of the water.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe, 1000 g of oils, with this additive at the dose it fills in, ready to change.
What it is
Fluid goat’s milk, as sold to drink: mostly water, with a little fat and milk sugar.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
How much
- 100 % of the water filled in Makela, Milk-Based Soaps primary source
- 50 % of the water There et al. (2022) primary source
- 14.8 % of the water (from a published recipe) Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source
The calculator fills in 100 % of the water: 325 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: as the lye liquid.
- Also used: into the lye solution, into the oils, after the cook.
- Freeze it, and add the lye slowly.
Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book primary source, Soap Queen supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- 87.03 % is water, taken off the recipe’s water.
- 4.14 % is fat, which stays in the bar as extra superfat.
- 4.45 % is sugar, which heats the batch.
USDA FoodData Central primary source
Worth knowing
- Caution: Hot lye scorches it: it darkens and can smell burnt or of ammonia. Keep it cold, and keep the soap cool so it does not gel. Soap Queen supplier or guide, Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book primary source
- Danger Its sugars, heated above 84 °C with lye, can give off toxic carbon monoxide. Keep it cool and work where air moves. NOAA CAMEO Chemicals primary source
- Milk itself uses up 4 to 6 % of the lye in a typical soap, so there is no need to cut the lye further for it. Dunn, “Protein in Handcrafted Soap” primary source
- Too much of it, as with any high-fat dairy, makes the soap likelier to go rancid early. Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book primary source
- Skin allergy to it has been reported. Asia Pacific Allergy (2021) primary source
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 5.08 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 15.3 g
- 1 cup ≈ 244 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Goat Milk
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book (Adams, 2007): honey, "Start with 1 tablespoon ... of honey per pound of oils", and the "honey volcano"; frozen milk is ready "if it is firmly slushy"; strong brewed coffee or aloe juice in place of the water.
Soap Queen, adding lye to milk: the lye into frozen milk, slowly; scorched milk turns "from a creamy white to a golden yellow" with an "ammonia-like smell for up to 10 days"; gel phase scorches it.
Casey Makela, Milk-Based Soaps (Storey, 1997): the lye into 3 pounds of cold milk, slowly, in a cold bath; cream "for either part or all of the milk", such a soap "considered superfatted because of the higher fat content"; "skim and powdered milk are poor choices".
There et al., hand-made soap with goat milk, IJRASET (2022): equal parts goat milk and water was the best of five formulas.
A journal with light review.
Susan Miller Cavitch, The Natural Soap Book (Storey Publishing, 1995): honey, "no more than 4 tablespoons (59 ml) of warm honey for a 12-pound (5.45 kg) batch of soap" (pp. 66–67); vitamin E at about 0.06 % and grapefruit seed extract at 0.5–5 % of the ingredients, in the oils before the lye; the Goat Milk Soap (pp. 110–114) takes "½ pound (227 g) cold goat milk" beside "2½ pounds (1.13 kg) cold, distilled water", the lye solution drizzled into the milk at 80 °F, because too much goat milk "makes the soap more vulnerable to premature rancidity"; fresh aloe gel "can sting and itch".
NOAA CAMEO Chemicals, sodium hydroxide solution: "reducing sugars other than sucrose, when heated (above 84°C.), evolve toxic levels of carbon monoxide in the presence of alkalis".
Kevin M. Dunn, "Protein in Handcrafted Soap" (Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild, 2014): milk "consumes 4% to 6% of the lye in a typical soap"; "If you use goat’s milk instead of water, you don’t need to discount your lye further."
Asia Pacific Allergy 11 (2021) e13: goat’s milk allergy developing after use of a goat’s milk soap.