Beef Fat Candles Beef Tallow Soap
It's amazing all the things y'all can do with a big blob of beef fat.
One time y'all return it into tallow, soap, candles, and the best french fries you've ever put in your oral cavity all become very real possibilities.
It'southward actually quite magical.
I've been threatening to share a tallow lather recipe for a while now, and the day has finally arrived, my friends.
Why Make Tallow Soap?
Tallow has had a bad reputation for years, which is rather silly, because it's an excellent choice for soap making. It's balmy for the skin, produces a gentle lather, and makes a very hard bar that won't turn into goop in your shower.
But the existent reason I'm drawn to it for lather making, is because lard and tallow make the most sense for homesteaders.
I'yard often drawn to the "gourmet" soap recipes I meet on Pinterest with their elegant swirls of colour and fancy flavors. But when I click on the recipe, I usually end upward skipping correct over it because it calls for a bazillion different types of (expensive) oils I don't have and really don't feel like ordering.
Don't get me incorrect, I don't accept anything against fancy soap recipes, but for me, making soap is more than almost function versus a fun hobby for my spare time. (Simply proverb "spare time" makes me laugh. Hahahahahaha.)
Lard (rendered fatty from pigs) and tallow (rendered fatty from cattle) were the traditional fats for our homesteading ancestors considering they were plentiful and inexpensive. Considering we raise and butcher our own hogs and steers for meat, we too tend to have a bounty of hog fat and beef fat. Information technology only makes sense to put it to skillful utilize, otherwise, information technology'd just go in the trash. What a waste.
Most tallow soap recipes yous see include a bit of tallow with a handful of vegetable oils as well. Because tallow lacks a bit of cleaning power on its ain, so it'south ofttimes combined with other oils. However, the purist in me insisted on creating a 100% tallow bar, simply similar my homesteader ancestors would have used. I've also included a tallow/coconut oil recipe, merely in case yous're looking for the benefits of tallow in a slightly more modern bar.
Where to Get Tallow or Lard
If you raise your own pork and beef, the easiest, most logical source of tallow or lard is the animals yous butcher. If yous butcher yourself, the very best fat for lather and food recipes is the leaf fat found around the kidneys. One time yous remove the kidneys from the within, follow these directions for rendering the fat to remove the impurities. This will leave you with luscious, limitless tallow or lard. You can use the fat from other parts of the beast, simply it may produce an end result with a slightly more than "bulky" scent/flavour.
If you lot go your meat from a butcher shop, inquire them to relieve leafage fat for y'all. They are usually happy to give information technology to you or sell it for a minimal fee, equally it'south not exactly a hot commodity at the moment.
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Yeah, yous have to apply lye when you make soap. Otherwise, y'all'd be washing yourself with a giant hulk of fatty, which wouldn't work well, for obvious reasons. Lye provides the necessary chemical reaction to turn fat into soap.
This is a hot procedure soap recipe that uses a crockpot. If you've never made crockpot soap, please advisedly read this mail FIRST, it contains very important safety information. Lye doesn't have to be scary, merely you lot do need to be respectful of it. ALWAYS wearable protective eye gear, gloves, and long sleeves when working lye, and handle information technology in a well-ventilated surface area.
If you desire to apply a different amount of tallow, or have a smaller/larger mold, that's an like shooting fish in a barrel fix. Just run your fat amounts through a soap reckoner first (similar this i) to make certain yous are using a proper amount of lye.
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Pure Tallow Lather Recipe
- 30 oz tallow or lard
- 3.88 oz 100% pure lye (where to buy pure lye)
- 11 oz distilled water
*When making soap, ever measure past WEIGHT, not past volume
Melt the tallow in the crockpot (or a pot over the stove if y'all're in a hurry).
Once the fat is nearly all melted, put on your rubber gear and advisedly measure the lye.
In an surface area with good ventilation (I do this under with my oven fan on), carefully stir the lye into the measured water. Always add the lye to the water– practise Non add the h2o to the lye, every bit it can consequence in a volcano-similar reaction.
Stir this lye/water mixture until information technology has dissolved and permit it sit for a few minutes. In that location will exist a chemic reaction betwixt the lye and water, and the water will become very hot, so be conscientious handling the container.
Place the melted tallow in the crockpot (if information technology's not already there), and slowly stir the lye/water mixture in.
Switch to an immersion blender (trust me, unless yous desire to stand there stirring for an hour, you'll use an immersion blender), and go on to blend the tallow, lye, and water until you lot attain trace.
Trace is when the mixture turns to a pudding-similar consistency and holds its shape when you baste a bit on top. Similar this—>
Trace tin can take anywhere from 3 to 10ish minutes to achieve.
Now put the chapeau on the crockpot, set up it on LOW, and let it to melt for 45-60 minutes. It will chimera and froth, which is fine. Just keep an middle on it to make sure it doesn't attempt to bubble out of the pot. If it attempts an escape, but stir information technology back down.
One time it has cooked for a while and passes the "zap" exam (see this post to understand what the zap test is), pour/scoop it into a mold and permit it to set for 12-24 hours.
Remove the solid soap from the bar, cut into confined, and permit to cure for 1-2 weeks. You can technically use the lather right away, but the dry out time will produce a nicer, harder bar of soap.
Tallow Coconut Oil Soap Recipe
- 20 oz tallow or lard
- ten oz coconut oil (I use expeller-pressed coconut oil– it has no coconut olfactory property and is cheaper)
- four.37 oz 100% pure lye (where to buy)
- ix oz distilled water
Follow the in a higher place directions for pure tallow soap, melting the kokosnoot oil in with the tallow in the first step.
Tallow Soap Recipe Notes:
- Why distilled water? Tap water can incorporate a variety of minerals which may cause weird results in the terminal soap. Information technology'due south all-time to remove this variable by only using distilled water.
- The pure tallow soap is eight% superfat, and the tallow/coconut oil soap is 6% superfat. This ways in that location is slight backlog of fat in the recipe, which ensures there volition be no unreacted lye (which would cause skin irritation).
- This is the soap mold I've been using. Information technology's inexpensive and perfect for smaller batches.
- This is where I go my kokosnoot oil. I purchase it in 5 gallons buckets and it lasts FOREVER.
- Does it smell weird? My tallow soap has a bit of a "fatty" smell, but it's not offensive (at least to me). And it does NOT odour like rendering tallow, which is proficient, because that's an icky smell.
- Can y'all add together essential oils to this soap? Yes, y'all tin can. If you practise, add it at the very cease right before you identify it into the mold. However, like I've mentioned in the past, it takes a LOT of essential oil to make soap odor potent. If yous're using high-quality essential oils like I do, this commonly isn't an option as information technology makes your bootleg lather pretty plush, pretty quick. Therefore, I tend to exit my soap unscented. Or you can merely purchase fragrance oils designed for soaping.
- If y'all're looking for a scented bar with a trivial more than pizazz, cheque out my homemade pumpkin lather recipe.
More DIY Cleaning Recipes:
- Homemade Mouthwash Recipe
- Top 10 Essential Oil Cleaning Recipes
- Bootleg Pumpkin Lather Recipe
- Hot Process Crockpot Soap
- Bootleg Liquid Dish Soap
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Source: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2016/01/tallow-soap-recipe.html