Granny's Lye Soap
About 5 or 6 pounds of lard and fat.
About 2 gallons of water.
1 box of Red Devil Lye.
Put the lard and fat in the cast iron wash pot.
In another container slowly pour the lye into the water, and stir until it is dissolved.
Slowly pour this mixture into the wash pot with the fat and grease.
Boil this mixture for about 2 hours until it thickens.
Let set overnight and the next day cut the soap in chunks.
The lye will dissolve the small pieces of fat that have been put in the pot with the grease.
Granny always made lye soap at least once a year. It was usually done on a wash day
after the clothes were finished and hanging on the clothes line to dry. All during the year,
she saved all the old cooking grease when she fried meat. And, on hog killing day, she
saved the small pieces of fat that was trimmed from the meat. Nothing went to waste.
Sometime after hog killing day she would make her lye soap. There was usually enough
soap to last all year.
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