The manufacturing
The manufacturing process is the same for all the large soap factories such as Le Sérail, Marius Fabre and La Savonnerie du Midi.
It takes 14 days to make authentic Marseille soap. Here are the different stages of production:
The cooking
- Saponification or mashing: transformation of oils into soap, under the action of soda or heat, in a large cauldron.
- Washing: the soap paste is washed several times in salt water to remove the remaining soda
- Cooking: the soap cooks for 1 day at a temperature of 120°C, under the supervision of the master soap maker
- Liquidation: several washes with water allow you to have an “extra pure” soap, free of all impurities
The finalization
- Pouring the soap: the soap paste is then poured into gigantic molds
- Drying: the soap dries for 48 hours in the open air
- Cutting: once dry, the soap is cut into 35kg loaves
- Molding: 2 types of marking => hand-struck for bars or machine-molded for cubes
- The stamping: on all 6 sides, which characterizes real Marseille soap
This is a truly unique traditional know-how in the world!Next article