Corn Shuck Soap
Take one gallon of strong lye. Add half a pound of shucks cut up fine. Let the shucks boil in the lye until they are reduced to shred. Then fish the shreds out and put in a half a pound of crackling grease, or six ounces of lard. Boil until sufficiently thick to make a good soap.
Source: Field and Fireside, March 6, 1862 as found in John Hammond Moore, ed., The Confederate Housewife (Columbia, SC: Summerhouse Press, 1997).
