Heavy cream (36 % fat)
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
Heavy cream, the kind sold for whipping. Makela notes that a soap made with cream counts as superfatted for it.
USDA FoodData Central primary source, Makela, Milk-Based Soaps primary source
How much
- 25 % of the water filled in Nature’s Garden supplier or guide
- up to 100 % of the water Makela, Milk-Based Soaps primary source
The calculator fills in 25 % of the water: 122 g for the 1000 g of oils in its starter recipe.
When and how
- Usually: into the oils.
- Also used: at light trace, after the cook, as the lye liquid.
- Stir it in as it is.
Nature’s Garden supplier or guide, Lovin Soap supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- 57.71 % is water, taken off the recipe’s water.
- 36.08 % is fat, which stays in the bar as extra superfat.
- 2.92 % is sugar, which heats the batch.
USDA FoodData Central primary source, Makela, Milk-Based Soaps primary source
Worth knowing
- Too much of it, as with any high-fat dairy, makes the soap likelier to go rancid early. Nature’s Garden supplier or guide
- 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. Nature’s Garden supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 5 g
- 1 tbsp ≈ 15 g
- 1 cup ≈ 238 g
USDA FoodData Central primary source
INCI name
Cream
Recipes that use it
Guides that discuss it
Sources
USDA FoodData Central, food 170859: Cream, fluid, heavy whipping.
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".
Nature’s Garden, soap with milk: the dairy as all of the water, or 50 %, or 25 %; cream at 25 % of the water, frozen, into the oils; dairy kept under 90 °F; high-fat dairy invites rancidity.
Lovin Soap, coffee and heavy whipping cream soap: the cream into the oils.