GV vegetable shortening SAP

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Ozzietx

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I am in the process of creating a vegan soap recipe. I have easy access to the Walmart Great Value Vegetable Shortening, and would like to use that as my base hard oil. I already use the tallow based GV shortening for my other soaps. I use soap making friend as a calculator, and it does not list the GV Vegetable shortening as an oil, only the tallow based. Has anyone else run into this? I have read that the GV Vegetable Shortening is very similar to what is listed as Crisco(old formula).
Can anyone give me some guidance on what to use ?
 
I've always used the GV shortening SAP in the calcs regardless if I use the tallow or vegetable versions. I had to do some Google search to jog my memory why I thought it was ok, but here's what I came up with:
Tallow shortening has Tallow, Lard, and Soybean oil (there's also hydrogenated tallow, which I didn't think affected the SAP value as it wasn't in the calc)
Vegetable shortening has Soybean and Palm (again with hydrogenated Palm listed separately but in calc it has the same SAP)
Looking at the SAP values themselves: Tallow .143, Lard .141, Palm .142 and Soy .136
With the SAP values all being so close between tallow/lard/palm, the micro variance at small batch level really isn't going to add up to much. The wild card is more likely if the percentage of soy is different between the two shortenings, but my thinking is that they're probably close enough that it doesn't matter. Maybe a more sciencey soapmaker will have a different perspective, which I look forward to learning from.

I make 800g (oil weight) batches for teaching soap classes and haven't had issues with a soap being lye heavy or soft. I also use a lower SF (3%) as this soap tends to be a bit scummy at higher SF, and it pushes the shelf life a bit. I had issues with DOS showing up at 14 months, but the lower SF at least allows us to use up the soap before DOS shows up. :) Just realized that I should also clarify that the recipe I use for classes is 40% shortening, 35% OO, 20% CO and 5% castor. (I offer the option to use lard instead of shortening for those who prefer to avoid soy, but shortening is an affordable option that is accessible in my area... sorry, that's OT but thought I would mention it.)
 
Using the Search bar at the top of the page, enter "GV Shortening" in the Search bar, check the box that says "Search Titles Only." This will pull up a several prior discussions on this exact issue.

In this particular thread, @Mobjack Bay did a great job researching and coming up with a recommendation. Highly recommended reading.
 

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