soapmaking supplies?

[BirdBrain]

To render fat of any kind, grind it up or cut it in small pieces. Put it in a pot on the stove over a low to medium flame. You don't want it too hot or it will start smoking and become a fire hazard. Keep a tight fitting lid handy. The fat will slowly heat up releasing the liquid oils. When the fat that you ground looks like cooked ground beef flosting in oil, it is done. Turn it off. You can also achieve the same thing by baking it, but stove top is less messy and quicker.

At this point, I filter it two times. The first time I pour it through a sifter (not the mechanical kind) to get out the chunks. Then I pour the resulting liquid (with small floaties) through the same sifter only lined with a paper towel. This results in a nice clear yellow/amber liquid. I pour it up in wide mouth canning jars and freeze it. Your can also pressure seal it (canning). When it cools down it is a lovely white hung of ready to use lard or tallow. I will never again make vegetable only soap. I was missing out on the luxury before I switched.

 

[lorihadams]

So could I go to the butcher and ask for pork fat and render my own lard?

 

[freemotion]

Yes, or beef fat, but keep them separate for your lye calculations. My favorite for soap is tallow made from suet. Find the whitest, purest, fattiest hunks of suet in the grocery store or the butcher, whichever is more convenient. I strain the rendered fat into loaf pans and cake pans and such, then cut it into manageable hunks and freeze it until I'm ready to use it. I will likely be doing some of this on this cold, rainy day today.

 

[me&thegals]

You can always ask

I've rendered deer and beef tallow now. It is a very stinky, messy process. Not trying to talk you out of it, but it really is. But good luck if you decide to!

 

[calendula]

Yes, or beef fat, but keep them separate for your lye calculations. My favorite for soap is tallow made from suet. Find the whitest, purest, fattiest hunks of suet in the grocery store or the butcher, whichever is more convenient. I strain the rendered fat into loaf pans and cake pans and such, then cut it into manageable hunks and freeze it until I'm ready to use it. I will likely be doing some of this on this cold, rainy day today.

I tried using suet a while back, and my soap came out really hard and crumbly. So, I am wondering if I maybe did something wrong. I also had coconut oil and palm oil in it. Also, I noticed that the suet had an unpleasant odor. Do I need to do something to it to get rid of the smell?

 

[freemotion]

Did you use JUST suet? I use it as a smallish percentage, to get some hardness and quicker trace to veg oils. Like 20% or something like that.

 

[calendula]

I didn't use just suet, but it was a lot more than 20 percent. I'll bet that's why it turned out the way it did. I don't have the numbers in front of me, I'm at work right now, but it was the majority of the fat that I used, definately over 50%.

Well, knowing this now, I think I will try it again using only 20 percent next time. Thanks!

 

[gettinaclue]

I was wondering, I normally drain off some of the fat when I cooked ground beef and bacon. Can I use this in making soap?

I keep them in different jars and have lots that I feel like needs to be used.

I would much rather use it than throw it away and buy something to make soap.

I have searched, but can't find any reference to using this fat.

Your thoughts?

 

[Homemaker]

http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/...8/10/if-youre-saying-to-yourself-ivory-i.html


You can check this out. I haven't tried it. Though I'm curious.

 

[Rhettsgreygal]

I have only made soap once using suet and lard. I got my lard from the guy who delivers feed to the dairy farm across the road from us. I went over to the neighbor to ask him where I could find suet and the delivery guy happened to be their and the neighbor was somewhere out back in the mud. I wasn't dressed for mud and asked the delivery guy. He said that his wife just rendered some suet and we could have it. It turns out it was lard. Since I didn't have any lard yet, I used it. I ended up buying the suet at the grocery store. It cost way too much. I found a butcher who will grind it at half the price in addition, the last time we stopped at the Amish farm we buy our eggs, one of the women was rendering a bunch of suet. She offered to sell me some. I wasn't ready to buy any yet, but once their yard dries out we will be back to buy some slab wood for next winter, I will see if she still is interested in selling some of her suet.

As for the mold, I used a clean, unused litter box. I bought lye drain opener at Menard's in town, and every thing else I bought at rummage sales, resale shops or happened to have lying around. I didn't buy an immersion blender; I bought a regular blender at a rummage sale. I didn't use the blender when I made my batch of soap. Has anyone used a regular blender when making soap?

My best buy was a small scale that I bought at a rummage sale for a quarter.