Lye Soap

I recently read an interesting and unusual novel by a popular writer.  It was set in the future, in the deserts of Arizona.  Some people were hiding in a cave and living off the land.  More than once, the book mentioned the cactus soap the people made and used, and how hard it was on their skin.  Everyone dreaded using the soap, and even worse, the job of making the soap, because it burned their hands so badly. 

The very next book I read was a history, set in the late 1800's.  It too mentioned soap and talked about how the mother of the protagonist owned a laundry.  The author speculated on how her hands would have been red and sore from the “harsh lye soap.”

I've thought a lot about this misconception regarding lye soap.  These two small examples, from great authors and careful researchers, are intriguing.  I’m not saying anything negative at all about them.  I just found it interesting that this idea would find its way into two books on such different subjects. 

Can lye burn you?  Oh, yes!  And boy, does it hurt.  But can soap burn you?  Maybe, but only if it's proportions are wildly incorrect.  Besides, all soap uses lye as an ingredient.  But, after the saponification process has occurred (perhaps a subject for a future blog post?), there is no lye remaining in the finished product. 

Okay, maybe, if you had absolutely no idea what you were doing, and you were hiding in a cave in the desert, and you were constantly worried about being invaded by parasite space aliens – maybe then it would be hard to figure out the recipe.  But, a woman living 150 years ago or more, and who owned a laundry service on the frontier – now she would for sure make some pretty dang good soap.