Bacon Fat Soap

[mommycarlson]

I have strained some bacon fat and wanted to use it in soap. Has anyone done this before? I did a forum search and came up with one thread, but I wondered if anyone has actually done it and if the bacon fat smell carries into the finished soap or if an FO will mask it?

ETA: I've did some research on cleaning the fat, but my question is: do I need to use distilled water to boil the fat in? or can I use tap water since none of that water will actually end up in my soap? I still want to know if anyone has used bacon fat to make soap

Thank you!

 

[DeeAnna]

I don't use distilled water for rendering if I use water (I usually dry render.) Theoretically there shouldn't be any water in your final rendered fat. In the case of bacon fat, I would probably melt and strain if you haven't already, then do one or more wet renderings to reduce any color and odor in the fat. LionPrincess has explained on SMF how she wet renders and I think her method is good.

I haven't done bacon grease but I've used smoked turkey fat. I didn't notice any particular smoky smell to the finished soap -- it was unscented. Your mileage may vary, though.

 

[cmzaha]

Yes, I have and it was fine, fragranced with a bacon fo. I wet rendered it and it worked perfectly. My favorite happens to be rendered chicken fat, which I find to be slow tracing. I just used water from home

 

[mommycarlson]

Thank you DeeAnna and Carolyn

 

[psfred]

Render a couple times with some baking soda in the water, this should de-color and de-odorize the fat quite a bit. May still have some residual "bacon" scent, but a strong FO should cover that.

Hard to argue with free soap making supplies! I may have to do this, we have some decent amounts of bacon fat collected. I save tallow from ground beef, and at the rate I'm using soap should have an adequate supply.

Have fun!

 

[mommycarlson]

psfred, do you think the baking soda would remain in the bacon fat?

I uncovered this website while reading how to "clean up" bacon fat:

http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/how-to-turn-bacon-grease-into-pie-crust/

 

[toxikon]

Thanks for the reminder, I just did Round-1 of wet rendering/deodorizing my full mason jar of bacon fat that was sitting in the fridge! Bacon soap sounds fun.

 

[mommycarlson]

Thanks for the reminder, I just did Round-1 of wet rendering/deodorizing my full mason jar of bacon fat that was sitting in the fridge! Bacon soap sounds fun.

toxicon,
did you put any baking soda in the water?

 

[DeeAnna]

The baking soda dissolves in the water, so if your fat doesn't have any water in it, it shouldn't have any baking soda in it either.

Some people use baking soda, some use salt, some use both, and some use neither. I'm not sure, in all the reading I've done about home rendering and in the lard and tallow I've rendered myself, that there's any universal consensus about this. I do think Psfred has a point that baking soda can help reduce odor. Try different methods and see what you think about the appearance and odor.

edit: Here's the method LionPrincess uses: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=52475

 

[toxikon]

toxicon,
did you put any baking soda in the water?

I used a tsp of baking soda and a tsp of salt. For the second round, I will probably just use water to get out any lingering nasties.

 

[mommycarlson]

I already boiled my fat for an hour, before I read about the baking soda and salt. Do you think it would be okay to do baking soda and salt tomorrow when I do the second boil?

 

[cmzaha]

When I rendered my bacon I washed it 3 times adding a small amount of baking soda in the first two boilings. I do not remember much scent of the bacon being left. When I rendered some beef fat I did it the same way resulting in no odor left in a beautiful white tallow. Would love to render more but it almost impossible to get beef trimmings/fat because it is all sent out to rendering houses in Los Angeles

 

[cherrycoke216]

Yes, I have and it was fine, fragranced with a bacon fo. I wet rendered it and it worked perfectly. My favorite happens to be rendered chicken fat, which I find to be slow tracing. I just used water from home

Carolyn, this sounds cool! I bumped into a food grocery carry rendered chicken fat few months ago. I was interested but didn't buy any. Now I'm going to take it home with me and have fun!!!

 

[mommycarlson]

I added a t of baking soda and a t of salt to my second boil. When I first put my bacon grease in the water it was nice solid bacon grease, when I drained it this morning the bacon grease was mushy and mealy, is that normal?

 

[psfred]

Yes. Do another wet rendering with plain water, then put it in the fridge to get it nice and hard before taking the fat off. It will have some saponified fatty acids in it (free fatty acids make "soap" with sodium bicarbonate) and will therefor have more water than normal.

I like to leave mine unwrapped in the fridge for a couple days, the very dry air in there removes a lot of the excess water. So will freezing it unwrapped (be careful not to get fat all over in the freezer!).

Rendered lard and stay grainy though, depending on where the fat came from in the pig -- leaf lard will be hard and white, bacon grease is usually a mixture of solid and semi-solid fats at room temp.

 

[mommycarlson]

Yes. Do another wet rendering with plain water, then put it in the fridge to get it nice and hard before taking the fat off. It will have some saponified fatty acids in it (free fatty acids make "soap" with sodium bicarbonate) and will therefor have more water than normal.

I like to leave mine unwrapped in the fridge for a couple days, the very dry air in there removes a lot of the excess water. So will freezing it unwrapped (be careful not to get fat all over in the freezer!).

Rendered lard and stay grainy though, depending on where the fat came from in the pig -- leaf lard will be hard and white, bacon grease is usually a mixture of solid and semi-solid fats at room temp.

Thank you psfred, at least I know it's normal and I didn't mess it up!

 

[cmzaha]

I put mine in a round container and froze it. That way any leftover solids, if there are any, will since into any remaining water and freeze so you can just scrape off the frozen water and solids

 

[mommycarlson]

I put mine in a round container and froze it. That way any leftover solids, if there are any, will since into any remaining water and freeze so you can just scrape off the frozen water and solids

Carolyn, did you freeze it after wet rendering?

 

[mrjesmon20]

That sounds interesting, I need to find out the meaning of some of the jargons though.

 

[BattleGnome]

That sounds interesting, I need to find out the meaning of some of the jargons though.

does this help?

The sticky threads at the top of the beginner forum are filled with all sorts of good information both on soaping and some of the particulars to the forum