Soap Making

[mystang89]

What do you do until you have enough? Freeze it?

 

[Zass]

I had some rendered goat tallow in my freezer for over a year, just made my first batch of homemade soap with it...seems to have worked out just fine.

 

[mystang89]

Is making your own soap economical or is the Lye and whatever else you need more expensive than I can afford?

 

[michaels4gardens]

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________ Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:14 pm __________

Sorry to bring this back up to the top but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

michaels4gardens,

I just finished rendering my first bit of tallow ever! Dad butchered a calf and I asked him to save the fat for me. I did about a 1/3 of what he gave me and it made 2 quarts and almost a pint of rendered tallow so pretty pleased. So, my question is...Do you wash the fats after you render them? I did strain it through a coffee filter and it looks wonderful and doesn't smell strong. Should I still wash it?

Do you use any of the fats you render for cooking?

Thanks so much!

I would not "wash it", -- it will work just fine, and -- you can save what ever other fat you have ,and store it in the freezer until you are ready, [that way it won't get rancid before you get around to soap making]
I have used fats I rendered for cooking and deep frying, and then strained them and used them for making lye soap, as long as more then half of the fat you use is beef fat you should get a nice hard bar of soap, [beef fat makes the hardest bar of any commonly available fat.] I just save all of my fat , chicken, rabbit ,pork, mutton, I keep the beef fat separate, and when I get ready to make soap, I weigh the beef fat, so I can make sure I don't add more then an equal amount of the other fats.

 

[alforddm]

Is making your own soap economical or is the Lye and whatever else you need more expensive than I can afford?

It's not as cheap as buying cheap soap (like Ivory) at Wal-mart. However, you can do things like go all organic and/or all natural. Plus you get to add the fragrances and or colors you want. IMO homemade soap is much nicer than anything you can buy at the supermarket.

 

[michaels4gardens]

if you have to buy your fat, it is not as cheap as "cheap soap" but-- I made about 30, XL bars of soap for about $6 , because the fat I used was free.

 

[alforddm]

:yeahthat:

Up until now I've had to buy my oils and fats. This is the first time I've actually got to render my own. It will defiantly make a HUGE difference in the price per bar.

 

[michaels4gardens]

My Lye was 32 lbs for $40-- that is cheap

 

[alforddm]

My Lye was 32 lbs for $40-- that is cheap

32lbs will make a LOT of soap lol.

 

[Zass]

Here we are: Goat tallow, olive oil, coconut oil, (lye of course) and anise. The little shaped soaps are without the anise.
I've read that goat tallow makes a pretty firm soap too.

I don't even know how much the lye cost, since I had a soap making friend over to show me how to do everything. She actually brought the lye.

Here's her website:
http://www.bumfuzzledbear.com/goats-milk-soap.html
Buying hand made artisan soap is definitely more expensive than buying soap from a store.