Where to find lard and tallow

frogsong · Nov 20, 2012

Hi. I have some family members who hunt and fish and I wanted to make them some odor cleansing soap bars for Christmas. Since they obviously do not mind animal fats, I thought I'd like to experiment with using lard or tallow.

I have thus far seen only lard on the shelves of my grocery star and it had some other ingredients, which I'm assuming we're preservatives or stabilizers of some sort. Is it okay to use it?

I have noticed that many of the shortenings on the shelves of stores also have these preservative/stabilizer ingredients. Is it okay to use them for soapmaking?

Are there better sources for lard/tallow? Like, ordering online? Or, do people find local sources from farms or something??

Anything you could tell me would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Sarah

lsg · Nov 20, 2012

I have used both lard and shortening from the store and they work fine. You can order lard from Soaper's Choice, but the shipping may not make buying it online worthwhile unless you are buying in bulk.

AlchemyandAshes · Nov 20, 2012

I'll chime in here, but someone who uses animal fats in their soaps will probably give you more info.

If your family hunts deer, like mine, you can render the fat from the deer (tallow) and use it to soap with...most hunter's appreciate using all the animal. I personally don't use animal fats in my soaps, but told my dad this year that if he rendered the fat from the two deer he got last week that I'd soap it for him. Deer don't have a lot of fat on them, but if you can render enough for a small batch, your family might appreciate that. Not sure where you're at and what is legal to hunt, but I've heard of people soaping bear fat, moose or elk fat, etc. You could probably soap with the fat rendered from Wild Boar, but I think it might smell very musty and take a lot of deodorizing with baking soda and salt. You can get tallow or lard from a local farm, or a local butcher, which may prove less tainted with hormones/antibiotics/etc than a chain grocer, depending where he gets his meat from.

Seifenblasen · Nov 20, 2012

I get tallow from a local farmer and lard from a butcher that renders his own from free-range pigs. The lard is too precious for soap making (but makes yummy pie crust - 40% lard, 60% butter

)

You can also get tallow online from Essential Depot. Sometimes they have sales with free shipping.

judymoody · Nov 20, 2012

Lard is often sold under the Spanish name "manteca" at grocery stores and Walmart. I think it's fine to use. As previously mentioned, you can probably gets some from a local butcher although you might have to render itself which is a messy job.

I also soap with vegetable oils only EXCEPT when my husband hunts and brings home elk/deer fat. Then I make it into soap and he gives it back to his soaping buddies. It makes really nice hard soap with a creamy lather. I don't use it personally because I don't eat mammals. It's a compromise I make for him. And the guys all love it.

Anise EO is good for covering up human scent if you are making sportsman soap.

Gryfonmoon · Nov 20, 2012

FYI, I went to Whole Foods and they sell straight pig fat. I bought ten pounds and took it home to render. It took about 5 hours but I have a bunch of lard now. (It was easy, I had never rendered fat before). It's a nice, white creamy fat.

Some ethnic groceries render their own lard and you could buy that, it doesn't have anything hydrogenated or gross in there.

chicklet · Nov 20, 2012

I've been buying Lard at Walmart to use. It smells like . . . well, lard, but after it saponifies it's odorless. I've made all lard soap to grate for laundry, and I've added lard to quite a few other soaps. The all lard soap makes really hard, white bars. I had the butcher at Kroger (grocery store) save me some beef fat to render but I haven't used it yet. I have several hunters in my family so I'm interested in trying deer fat.

frogsong · Nov 20, 2012

I just can't thank you all enough! You have given me so many good starting ideas. I will post follow ups and pictures when I have some actual soap made.

Thank you,
Sarah

Maythorn · Nov 21, 2012

I bet lard and tallow in a recipe together would be great. You'd get a really firm bar of soap. I have heard of putting palm and lard together with similar results.

Where to find lard and tallow

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