Do You Know How Many High LARD Threads There Are?

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BrewerGeorge

BrewerGeorge

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At least two pages of Google results going back several years before they start drifting . :twisted: But they're too old to add new posts and don't really answer my exact question anyway, so here goes.

I've got quite a lot of soap curing due to the scent testing I've been doing recently, so I figured I might branch out and try some unusual (for me) oil combinations for my next round of scent testers.

The first thing I thought of was 100% Lard, but I'm concerned about that infamous lardy smell interfering with evaluating the new scents. I thought I'd ask for the opinions of the experienced soapers here about whether you think 100% lard would be a good idea for this purpose.

Then, if I were to go ahead, what sorts of process steps can I take to minimize the impact of the lardy smell? Not overheating the lard when melting it is often recommended, but what about preventing gel - or even refrigerating like a milk soap - to keep temps down after trace? How about using a lower superfat (2%?) so there's less leftover lard that might smell? Does anybody know of anything else that has been successful?
 
I've never done a 100% lard, so take this with a grain of salt. I do make a high lard recipe, and I definitely can smell it as I'm mixing things up. I usually pick up the smell as I cut the soap as well, especially if it's a light scent like OMH. However, once everything is saponified, cut and well into curing, the lardy smell kind of fades, and my fragrance comes through nicely.
 
I honestly think there are some people who can smell the lard and find it objectionable no matter how mild, and others who either don't smell it at all or find the odor to be mild and not objectionable.

My rule of thumb is if I don't smell a strong odor in the lard before it's turned into soap, there won't be a strong smell in the finished soap. So far this idea is holding true for store bought lard and home rendered lard. This rule of thumb assumes the lard is never heated to silly temps -- I heat it until it is just melted and clear, no more.

I don't try to prevent the soap from heating up and if it gels, it gels. I don't use a high superfat, but I don't do this for odor control -- that's just my way. My feeling is that a high-lard soap doesn't need a high superfat to be mild to the skin.
 
I have done an 80% lard soap and like everyone else, I smell it throughout processing, but I can't after the cure.

If you're concerned I'd use sharper smells.

On the other hand why not scent test with your base recipe? That way you can smell it the way it would come through on your base recipe. There would be no risk that you'd toss a perfectly good scent because you didn't like it on a full lard soap.

The only time I do a single fat soap is when I'm color testing.
 
The things you mentioned, like melting the lard at lower temps is very important. I like lard* myself and use it in almost all my recipes except a vegan one, with butters, cocnut and other oils.

But to answer your question about lardy smell interfering with evaluating new scents:

If it doesn`t stink before you make soap with it, my experience is that it will not stink after either. And I have made unscented 100% lard soaps, they just smell like...soap.
 
DeeAnna said:
I honestly think there are some people who can smell the lard and find it objectionable no matter how mild, and others who either don't smell it at all or find the odor to be mild and not objectionable.
Click to expand...

Based on my experiences soaping with lard, I'm convinced of this as well. I've never made a 100% lard soap, but I have gone as high as 66% and have never smelled lard in my soap, not even the day I got distracted and accidentally let my melting lard get as hot as 160F/71C in my soaping pot. Although I definitely smelled it as it was melting, I could not detect it in my finished soap.


IrishLass :)
 
I've made soap with as much as 80% lard. I grew up with a grandmother who made 100% lard soap. If the soap is unscented, I just smell "soap" regardless of the % lard.
 
I haven't done any 100% lard soaps, but if you move forward with your testing I'd love to know what the results are :)
 
I have made 100% lard soap and I don't find it offensive enough to effect my fragrances, but I do tend to be heavy handed in fragrancing soaps. I find 100% olive oil much more fragrant than 100% lard in the final soap regardless of fragrances.
 
Agreeing with Jules. I've done one 100% lard soap, my Cap soap, but it's strongly scented with an apple/apple pie blend and I cannot smell any lard at all in the cured bars. This soap even accelerated away from me because of the scent blend, got super hot in the process and was ready to cut like 4 hours after molding, but never once smelled like pig.
 
I can smell lard at every percentage...until I add an appropriate amount of fragrance or essential oils. Then it smells like whatever the scent is. If the scent is any of the "ocean" smells, I smell the lard through it. I, too, like sharp scents with high lard soaps.

I would not make 100% lard soap. It just gets so much better with castor oil, olive oil, and coconut oil.
 
I agree with Susie for the most part. I can smell lard over 40% in my soaps. However, it cures out mostly (except the unscenteds at like 75% and up). I have noticed a difference in the smells "out of bucket" -high smell = high smell in soap.

That said, NO ONE who I've recruited to sniff my soap smells anything other than soap or the fragrance....I think we're just sensitive to it ;).
 
If you open the container and smell pig, I do think you have more carryover to the finished product. Currently the Smart and Final brand I use now smells oily, like a generic fat when my nose is less than a foot away and nobody has noticed a smell in the final product.

I've had Farmer John lard that smacked me in the face when I opened it.....and there was a noticeable scent in the soap later. It mostly disappears, but next time I just didn't use it.
 
dixiedragon said:
Some people are also more sensitive the scent of olive oil and find it objectionable. To my nose, lard soaps are "neutral" - they smell soapy. Castile soaps smell soapy and a bit of olive oil.
Click to expand...

I can smell a bit of olive oil in unscented Castile,too. If it's scented one, then I can't smell the olive oil.

jules92207 said:
I have made 100% lard soap and I don't find it offensive enough to effect my fragrances, but I do tend to be heavy handed in fragrancing soaps. I find 100% olive oil much more fragrant than 100% lard in the final soap regardless of fragrances.
Click to expand...


This goes to show how everyone's sniffer is so different than others'. :p Can lard cancel out heaps of FO? I can't smell lard in my high lard recipe. ( up to 80%) but I can smell tallow in a high tallow formula ( 80% ). I use FO @3%.
ETA: I don't find high olive more fragrant than high lard. Might be my sniffer is different.
 
Last edited:
Well I know I do not have the experience than others here. But lately I have been using lard, as I love the end result of the bar. And I prefer to make Hot process soap.

My guess is that if you do HP instead of CP were the soap has gone through the whole process, and then at your scent at the end, you have little change of any lard smell coming though, and you scent sticking well.

Just my 2 cents.
 

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