Soap Making 101

[Farmfresh]

I personally use lard and tallow.

I can get lard ready to use from my butcher shop cheap and/or get the lard from hogs we buy or hogs friends buy (ground like hamburger for easy processing) free. I can also get suet from the butcher for free and they grind it for me for just a small fee. Then I render my own tallow and lard. Not much cheaper that that.

I know some folks are against animal fats in their soaps, but both produce a nice hard useful bar. My laundry bars are only made from this free fat and work great.

Do you ever get a porky (or beefy) smell in the bars? I render lard, but then sometimes it still smells pretty porky.

If I am rendering for cooking I just leave it porky and love it. The secret for soap, however, is to really get the animal fats clean.

After I render my lard (or tallow) I place it in a big kettle about half full of water (and sometimes a bit of salt) and boil it. Then I chill it remove it from the top of the water and let my nose be the judge. If it still smells - I repeat the procedure. Each change of water removes more impurities and the impurities carry the smell. Usually two times is the most that it needs. A very faint scent will disperse in the chemical reaction when the lye is added.

I make primarily un-scented soaps since most of my family has problems with scents. My soap usually has a nice clean scent about it when it is finished. No bacon soap here.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I personally use lard and tallow.

I can get lard ready to use from my butcher shop cheap and/or get the lard from hogs we buy or hogs friends buy (ground like hamburger for easy processing) free. I can also get suet from the butcher for free and they grind it for me for just a small fee. Then I render my own tallow and lard. Not much cheaper that that.

I know some folks are against animal fats in their soaps, but both produce a nice hard useful bar. My laundry bars are only made from this free fat and work great.

Do you ever get a porky (or beefy) smell in the bars? I render lard, but then sometimes it still smells pretty porky.

If I am rendering for cooking I just leave it porky and love it. The secret for soap, however, is to really get the animal fats clean.

After I render my lard (or tallow) I place it in a big kettle about half full of water (and sometimes a bit of salt) and boil it. Then I chill it remove it from the top of the water and let my nose be the judge. If it still smells - I repeat the procedure. Each change of water removes more impurities and the impurities carry the smell. Usually two times is the most that it needs. A very faint scent will disperse in the chemical reaction when the lye is added.

I make primarily un-scented soaps since most of my family has problems with scents. My soap usually has a nice clean scent about it when it is finished. No bacon soap here.

Thanks! I think I'll try that this winter (when I hopefully have more time)!

 

[gettinaclue]

I personally use lard and tallow.

I can get lard ready to use from my butcher shop cheap and/or get the lard from hogs we buy or hogs friends buy (ground like hamburger for easy processing) free. I can also get suet from the butcher for free and they grind it for me for just a small fee. Then I render my own tallow and lard. Not much cheaper that that.

I know some folks are against animal fats in their soaps, but both produce a nice hard useful bar. My laundry bars are only made from this free fat and work great.

Do you ever get a porky (or beefy) smell in the bars? I render lard, but then sometimes it still smells pretty porky.

If I am rendering for cooking I just leave it porky and love it. The secret for soap, however, is to really get the animal fats clean.

After I render my lard (or tallow) I place it in a big kettle about half full of water (and sometimes a bit of salt) and boil it. Then I chill it remove it from the top of the water and let my nose be the judge. If it still smells - I repeat the procedure. Each change of water removes more impurities and the impurities carry the smell. Usually two times is the most that it needs. A very faint scent will disperse in the chemical reaction when the lye is added.

I make primarily un-scented soaps since most of my family has problems with scents. My soap usually has a nice clean scent about it when it is finished. No bacon soap here.

That is really neat! I'm gonna have to give that a try.

 

[valmom]

Oooh, bacon soap...

 

[Damummis]

Just made a batch with Thieves oil someone gave me. Threw some cinnamon in for a speckled look.

 

[Farmfresh]

Oooh, bacon soap...

There is one in every crowd Val!

I was going to mention that I usually do all of my rendering on those cold days in winter. There are several benefits to doing it that way.

First I often do the primary rendering in the oven in a roaster. It seems to work real well that way. Often I pop a roast or something into the oven at the same time. In the winter the oven heat is a benefit.

Next the steam from cleaning the rendering fat smells great and adds needed humidity when the house is often dry.

Finally I can simply sit the hot covered pots out on my unheated back porch to chill until the fat is solid. That saves both energy AND refrigerator space.

When I package up my finished lard and tallow into those plastic Gladware containers (or other plastic containers like butter tubs or ice cream tubs). I try to always WEIGH and label each container. (BE SURE to zero out the container weight so that the weight is contents only!) Then I usually freeze it until I am ready to soap. (No rancid fats in my soap. ) By labeling the weight on each container it makes it easy later to grab the right ones that most closely match the recipe that I am making. You could even package the lard and tallow pre-measured for your favorite soap recipe. Anytime you take on this end just makes the soaping that much faster and easier.

 

[valmom]

Well, got back from food shopping, and I always check the oils section for cheap soap oils. Or, even un-cheap ones that are different that I want to try someday like grapeseed oil and various nut oils. I found lard! I don't know how I never noticed it before, all nicely packaged in 1lb boxes like butter, for $2.50 or so. Per pound it is cheaper than Crisco. It has preservatives in it, but I don't think they should make too much difference for soap (I wouldn't eat it!). This gets around the processing problem because I can hide the little boxes, and I usually soap when I have the house to myself. Off to soapcalc to see how lard will change my soap!

 

[krisac]

Valmom....So ready to me a gramma....no luck for four years for trying...should we trade?
Kristina

 

[valmom]

Grandma is fun- it would be better if they weren't half the coast away- they live in VA outside DC.

 

[krisac]

Mine are in the Air Force so who knows where they will eventually turn up Right now it's Mississippi.