These recollections were dictated by Anna Laabs of Belle Plaine in 1980 and originally shared in the collection “As I Remember Scott County”
First the wood ashes in wintertime were saved from the heating stove and kitchen range. When spring came, a waterproof barrel was put up behind the smoke house on a stand, with a big piece of tin put on the barrel so the lye water could run in the big black kettle which was hanging on a log held up by two charlie horses. The black pot was about a foot off the ground.
Ana Lebra with Chickens, around 1910. Photo from the SCHS collections.
I was a little girl, eleven years old, so Mother said “now get your pail, go in the house, and pump your pail full of cistern water and pour it over the ashes until there are quite a few pails full”. Pretty soon a little stream of water was slowly going down the tin into the black kettle. It was the color of molasses and took quite some time to fill the black pot as the stream was very slow.
When the kettle filled up to a foot from the top, Mother took a raw chicken egg and put int in the kettle with the lye water. The egg did not sink to the bottom, so she new it was right for her to start soap cooking. I made a fire under the kettle. It took time before it was hot enough to put her clean lard and skins in. She had a long-handled wooden spoon to stir with. She always had a pail of cold water handy so when it boiled too fat she could pour could water in and it would settle. Some folks had trouble with it boiling over- what a mess!
When the cooking was done, I would scrape the fire from the pot and she would put a cover on it with a blg rock on top and some old coats. The next morning she and I would go out and she would cut a piece. It was ever so nice and clean and white.
Mother never had moldy lard, we took peach and pear boxes with clean cloth on the bottom of them and set the soap in there and put the boxes in the upstairs of the house to dry until ready to use.