To make actual soap, you’ll need potash, soda ash, or lye: these are alkalines you can produce easily with Appendix C. An alkaline is a substance that at the atomic level accepts protons from any chemical donor: they’re the opposite of acids, which are substances that donate them.* A neat thing happens when you combine alkalines with oils or fats: you induce a chemical reaction called “saponification.” During saponification, the fats chemically combine with the alkalines to form new molecules: long and skinny hydrocarbon chains.* These chains have a cool (and for you, very useful) property:
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