Liquid Soap Recipes

Nigel Slater's melon, peaches and chicken recipes

The still, heavy air of high summer has got the better of me and I am already wishing for the return of winter's clear, cold, frosty mornings, but at least July brings us some wonderful stuff to eat. Ripeness is everywhere right now, from heavy, juice-laden blackcurrants down in the fruit patch to the first of the home-grown Sungold tomatoes no bigger the marbles. Best of all are the white peaches, cantaloupe melons and loganberries, whose ripeness can be sniffed from a metre away.

Any food shopper who fails to inhale the summer's produce is missing a trick. The smell of some vegetables and fruits is the clearest guide to their ripeness. Peaches, pineapples, melons, tomatoes and apricots are all heavy with perfume once they reach their optimum point. Those slits in boxes of strawberries in the supermarket may well be there for air circulation but are invaluable for getting a whiff of the fruit before we put our money down.

Peaches smell differently depending on the colour of their flesh. White peaches – so perfect at the moment – have a distinctive rose-like note to them that I have teamed up with the flowers themselves. Unashamedly romantic pairings include serving the sliced fruits with a rosewater and yogurt panna cotta and, this week, in a strawberry syrup flavoured with crushed petals. In this sultry climate the roses are even more heady than usual. Their petals, both pink and deepest crimson, have been used in Middle Eastern cooking for centuries, as have the dried petals and the distilled water we know from their displays in sticky pistachio-laden pastries.

A favourite recipe in this kitchen is Rose Prince's accompaniment to lamb, made by pounding roses, almonds and olive oil with a hint of garlic and ground coriander to give a nubbly spread for roast lamb or pork. The dried petals turn up in the spice mix ras el hanout, which makes a splendid rub for chicken wings. Rosewater, made from the condensed steam of boiled rose petals, is something I use in a sugar syrup for saturating anything from babas to fruit. I can't go along with the classic teeth-jarringly sweet syrup recipes using equal amounts of sugar and water, but instead make a lighter, more contemporary cooking liquid altogether using just half the amount of sugar and slightly less rosewater than is usual. Adding it bit by bit is essential. Believe me when I tell you that one drop too many and you have liquid soap.

The four most heaven-sent ingredients in my kitchen this week turned up at the same meal. A grind-up of rose petals, strawberries and sugar for a dish of white peaches, and another of mint and ripe melon, offered a sensory overload in a sweltering midweek afternoon. The melon, leaking juice like a pierced waterbed, ended up soaking in a mixture of mint, sugar and its own juices. Thoroughly chilled, it emerged to cool us down on a sticky day better than any drink ever could.

Liquid Soap using REGULAR lye. sodium hydroxide - Welcome to the ...

I formulated soap recipes using mostly oils known to make of soap or are liquid at room temp. Ran it through a lye calculator just like I was making bar soap. Did everything else just like I was making bar soap. Cooked the raw soap using the double boiler hp method until done. Left the soap pot in the double boiler. Then added water and small amount of vodka. Stick blend until smooth. Put the lid back on and cook for at least another half hour to cook off the alcohol and to allow the soap to clarify. Remove lid, stir well, set aside to cool. When cool, you may have to scoop off a small amount of the very top that is trying to decide if it wants to be liquid or solid. Pour remaining liquid soap in large container. Scent and bottle as desired. That's about it. From start to finish (minus cooling time) approx. 2-2.5 hours.

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