soap recipe

[manbee]

looking for a basic honey soap recipe.

[bee crazy]

Hey mannbee, study this thread, I think you'll find more infor on honey soap than you want.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212991

[Monie]

I use the lye calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage. It's quite simple to use. You just add the ounces of oil or tallow you'll be using and it calculates the amount of lye and water for you. They also have some basic recipes that are nice.

http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

[Bizzybee]

"I use the lye calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage."

I have one that will run in excel or calc. PM me an addy and I'll send a copy.

I've always wondered if someone on the other end of those free calculators are rubbing their hands together receiving all of those free formulas.....

[beaglady]

"I've always wondered if someone on the other end of those free calculators are rubbing their hands together receiving all of those free formulas.....

I'd presume that a major supplier like MMS has staff with enough formulating skills that stealing recipes from users is not a priority. Take of the tin foil hat - lye will eat it anyway.

[LusciousHoney]

I use the lye calculator at Majestic Mountain Sage. It's quite simple to use. You just add the ounces of oil or tallow you'll be using and it calculates the amount of lye and water for you. They also have some basic recipes that are nice.

http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php

I love to use the MMS lye calculator. It is an easy to read output that I can easily save as an HMTL doc on my computer.
But I also use http://www.soapcalc.com/calc/SoapCalc.asp to get the ingredients in the propotions that I want. It gives you 7 different properties for the different oils you plan on using (both individually, and collectively). There is a link at the top that gives recommended ranges for the different properties. I usually start here, get my rough proportions, and then use those to input in to the MMS calculator.

[George Fergusson]

Anyone here render their own lard or tallow? If so, how to you do it?

[iddee]

Using a large enough pot to hold all your fat, start on low heat with just enough fat in the pan to almost cover the bottom. Like frying bacon.
Stir regularly to keep from sticking and scorching.

Once the lard starts seeping out, like bacon will do, then add chunks of fat until you have enough liquid to cover the solids. Then you can turn the heat up to medium and continue adding fat chunks at a rate that they will always be covered with the liquid. You can remove the cracklings as they harden. "the lard is cooked out"

If you have lard to "prime" the pan, with about 1 inch of melted lard, you can start on medium heat and continue adding from there.

I cut the fat to chunks approx. 1 inch square.

PS. The cracklings are great for snacking right from the pan. They are also great when used in cornbread.

[George Fergusson]

Using a large enough pot to hold all your fat, start on low heat with just enough fat in the pan to almost cover the bottom. Like frying bacon.

OK that's pretty much what I've been doing. My wife is very sensitive to the "meaty" smell of the lard (more so than I am) so I've taken to boiling the rendered lard in an equal quantity of water for a while with a peeled potato (old wives tale) then letting it cool and harden. This seems to "clean" the fat pretty well. Been doing the same with tallow.

The trend in soap making these days seems to be to use all vegetable oils. Historically, animal fat was the primary base fat in home made soap. Even more historically, soap made by "pioneers" was typically more suitable for removing paint and was not typically used to wash with. They used potassium hydroxide (wood ash) for lye and this made a soupy soap that was kept in a barrel. You didn't put it on your body unless you were planning on removing your skin anyways.

[HVH]

OK that's pretty much what I've been doing. My wife is very sensitive to the "meaty" smell of the lard (more so than I am) so I've taken to boiling the rendered lard in an equal quantity of water for a while with a peeled potato (old wives tale) then letting it cool and harden. This seems to "clean" the fat pretty well. Been doing the same with tallow.

The trend in soap making these days seems to be to use all vegetable oils. Historically, animal fat was the primary base fat in home made soap. Even more historically, soap made by "pioneers" was typically more suitable for removing paint and was not typically used to wash with. They used potassium hydroxide (wood ash) for lye and this made a soupy soap that was kept in a barrel. You didn't put it on your body unless you were planning on removing your skin anyways.

If you are trying to make soap from animal fats that don't smell "meaty" you should start with the large globs of fat around the kidneys called suet. You can usually get suet really cheap from a "real" butchers shop. The suet is then rendered in water to become tallow. I usually render in water multiple times to get the tallow extremely pure. Each time the tallow is allowed to harden, the fat cake flipped upside down, and the impurities scraped off. The part that is scraped off can be rendered in a smaller pot if you don't want to waste it. Tallow soap is harder that fats rendered from meaty areas of the animal.

[George Fergusson]

If you are trying to make soap from animal fats that don't smell "meaty" you should start with the large globs of fat around the kidneys called suet. You can usually get suet really cheap from a "real" butchers shop. The suet is then rendered in water to become tallow. I usually render in water multiple times to get the tallow extremely pure. Each time the tallow is allowed to harden, the fat cake flipped upside down, and the impurities scraped off. The part that is scraped off can be rendered in a smaller pot if you don't want to waste it. Tallow soap is harder that fats rendered from meaty areas of the animal.

I've been rendering tallow (suet) also and much prefer it to lard. It's harder for one thing which makes it easier to deal with. I render it without water, dipping it off and straining through a fine filter first, then adding as much water as fat and boiling it for a while. After it hardens, as you say, much of the impurities are left in the water. I've only had to do that twice.

[beaglady]

I've been rendering my own tallow for a few years now. I've had the best luck with having it ground first, then putting it in a covered roasting pan in a 250 degree oven. Keeping the temp low helps avoid the meaty smell. Grinding it first increases the yield.

When I've rendered it with water, it seems to get a sour smell more quickly than when I do it dry.