Yes, it is called rebatching, and I will avoid it if at all possible. It's time consuming and tedious. To let you know, I make cp soap by the 10 pound recipes. I presently have 2 buckets of soap scraps, I would guess about a 2 or 3 cubic foot container. Instead of rebatching it I will add it to a new recipe of soap. Unlike what you have, this is still virgin soap scraps, not previously used. I will make soap and give these away or use them ourselves. What I would do if I had these previous used scraps, I would just add it to a new bar as they are being used; they do stick fairly readily, and they rarely come off. If you are going to still rebatch, I would grate them, then lightly mist them (not dripping) the night before, then add them to a crockpot on low or medium heat. You will need to set aside about 4 hours or so, depending on how much soap you need to do. The trick is to add just enough water (by the tablespoon) to keep the soap pliable and not dry, while you are trying to mash it, until it is thoroughly melted. Be careful, this soap is very hot while in the crock! Any scent of the scraps will disappear in the final product, so if you want it scented, then let the soap cool down a bit and mix in scent just before pour/mashing it into any molds. hth

Gosh, you all have been busy! I am busy making stuff, too, but I don't do craft shows or sell on the internet; we own a small soap and candle shop located in an up-scale flea market. I only do M&P soap; have never tried making CP. I tried some organic CP that a friend of mine made recently. It was lovely soap, herb filled and smelled and looked wonderful. However, neither my son nor I could use it. ALthough it didn't break us out like commercial soap will, it was so hard that we just didn't like the feel of it and it made our skin feel irritated afterwards (although it didn't look irritated). We prefer the softness of the M&P. I am glad to see someone is still hanging around and checking the forum- this forum is pretty much dead although at one time a couple of years ago it was very active. Susan

Hi and good luck, I don't come here often, so I may not be back to respond. I would recommend to try the CP method first, I find it easier then HP. If you are going to rebatch, making soap (either method) then re-melting it, then HP may be okay. Hot process (HP) is a little trickier to get the look right, as it can look too rustic for some. As for a recipe, what oils/fats do you have on hand? I would recommend if you are going to HP, then use the full amount of water, do not discount it. Good luck!

"Specific instructions about how NOT to do it" likely don't exist as it is impossible to prove a negative. That's why we can only advise against rather than disprove the methods some insist on using, the "I've never been sick yet" camp of home canners. Further common sense and common scientific fact underlie most of the guidelines. One should not have to prove to others that cold foods won't reach 240 degrees temperature in the same amount of time that hot foods will reach 240 degrees. That it will take longer amount of time. That is something we should learn in elementary school or at least by high school chemistry. :-) Rather these folks on the other forum are making the assumption that by the time the cold water they start with comes to a boil and the canner begins to vent the cold foods inside the jars - ALL the food inside the jars - will have also reached the boiling temp. They are disregarding the effects of density on the penetration of heat. They are disregarding the differences between heat penetrating liquids vs. solids. So while their jar of plain liquid broth might (although they can't prove it) have reached boiling, their jar of vegetables or meat will not have. They will still have what are called "cold pockets" of food in the jars where bacteria can still survive. As the temperature climbs to 240 those cold pockets will continue to lag behind UNLESS sufficient time is added to the calculated processing to also bring them up to 240 for the required amount of time. So, NCHFP Publication: Heat Processing of Home-canned Foods states: The time and temperature combinations at which C. botulinum, its spores and other bacteria are killed are established under certain conditions. However, the substrate (food) in which these bacteria are found is an important variable factor in the rate of destruction. The food factors that will influence the amount of heating needed to kill bacteria include: the consistency of the food; the pH (acidity); and, the presence of nutrients that are “protective” for bacteria (e.g., high protein and sugar levels). Other influences on the amount of heat delivered to the food in the jar are: the shape and size of the jar; the size, shape and texture of food pieces; the solid to liquid ratio; the temperature of the food at the beginning of the process; and, the temperature inside the canner. For example, heat penetration through a mass of liquid (faster) will be very different from heat penetration through puréed or mashed food (slower). This is apparent during stove-top cooking too, where different foods heat up differently based on their composition and consistency. If the food is thick, puréed, or mashed; if there are large pieces of food in the jar; or, if the food is packed in too tightly, heat penetration can be slower than in more liquid or loosely packed foods. If a specific heat process is not calculated for each food and style of pack, the heating may not be adequate, and the food will be underprocessed. (The bold marking above is mine.) It then goes on to explain how, with the use of thermocouples and extensive testing, the correct processing times are determined. So unless these folks are duplicating that thermocouple testing in their home kitchens, their cold food into cold water is being underprocessed. They will ask, if that is true then why then do some foods have the same processing times for both hot and raw packed foods. The answer is that during testing it was determined that in many cases they actually aren't the same. Hot processing requires a few minutes less but the hot processing time was rounded up to the same times for user convenience once it was determined that quality was not affected much. Why are hot and raw pack processing times sometimes the same? Hot pack and raw pack variations, if they are offered in USDA recommendations, have each been researched separately. This includes collecting heat penetration data and calculating an independent process time for each. So the process time is determined by the actual heating characteristics of the pack. Depending on preparation procedures and the type of process, the final result may be the same. Other times, it might be different. The temperature of the process (boiling water or pressure) and the length of the process needed can influence the differences between hot and rack pack rates of heating. Another consideration is that USDA home-canning processes are rounded off to the next higher 5-minute interval. If the hot and raw pack process times vary by less than 5 minutes, but in the same interval, the recommended process time will be the same. For example, if the hot pack is calculated as 11 minutes and the raw pack requires 14 minutes, they will both get rounded off to, and published as, a 15-minute process time. Of course you and I and most well-informed canners recognize that all this debate wouldn't even be necessary if not for the fact that some flat out insist on finding personal shortcuts or doing what is convenient for them rather than simply following the tested and approved guidelines. But sadly you likely aren't going to change their minds. Hope this helps. Dave