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Thanks @AliOop! Fortunately my apartment is (very) warm and dry….

Thanks @AliOop! I really appreciate the vote of confidence. 😊 And yes, lesson learned, 250F is good for melting but not holding. I wonder… is the choice of 250F a speed thing? If I was comfortable with a longer wait, could I do this at a lower set point? So…. Here is what they looked...

I just made my first batch at 100% deer tallow. As in, my first batch of soap ever. It was/is an adventure of not quite right, and I am having fun. I don’t have anything useful to add, but I’ll be watching this thread carefully! It is my intention to soap primarily with deer tallow for a...

I will let you know…..

So here we go: Moving very slow today… first head cold in 21 months. Blech. But it means I’m home, not working. It also means no distilled water, and I’m using an old spring scale. I cross my fingers, but I’m taking heart from the injunction that you can’t add *too much* water, and that...

Thanks @AliOop! I minced it all up super fine this evening (then had to hide it from the cat…. aren’t I glad it was fully reacted!!), except for one tiny 1.5oz bar I was able to carve out of the mess, and will put it in to bake in the morning… I tucked the little bar out of the way and will...

@gww I’m glad you have gotten something of value to you from my posts! 😊 I hope the rendering finishes well, and I’ll look for posts of your soaps!

Well then, I wish you a healthy plump buck just the right size for your need, a clear safe line of fire, and steady warm hands at the moment of truth. The stuff around the kidneys is gold, and to my surprise the caul fat yields well enough to take for this purpose if you aren’t using it for...

Ha! Thanks…. Ontario, Canada South Eastern Ontario to be more accurate. I will update my profile…

☹️ That is a small yield, and yeah I agree being present in the field would make the difference (as well as get you the best fat); I expect about a kilo or more of raw leaf fat when I am harvesting during field dressing. My friend I hunt with just shakes his head and gets out of my way… too...

Greetings @ResolvableOwl! It sounds like there is a story there…. Thanks for taking the time to address a couple different points for me. Very appreciated! Yes, these days I actually store my cleaned, rendered tallow in the freezer, wrapped up tightly. The exercise with trying to clean the...

Hi gww! No worries! I learn best by understanding the “why”s of process, and by making mistakes / having unforeseen outcomes, so I’m pretty happy right now. 😁 And the support I’ve been given here already has been super encouraging and helpful. Extra happy. 😊 I see how you are rendering...

Hi AliOop; Interesting. I had thought that the HP would be more energy efficient, since once it was cooked, and the reaction complete, I wouldn’t need to worry about keeping the fat above melting point. I had thought that with cold process, I would have to apply enough heat to prevent my...

Thanks AliOop! I admit I rushed the rewashing of the fat, and it possibly (probably?) still had baking soda and salt in it. Do you think I should give up on trying to make good on the old rancid fat, and just move on to fat that I’ve processed to clean as you’ve described (I have a fair bit at...

So yesterday I made my first ever soap, and nothing went as expected…. My recipe was a hot process deer tallow soap. Tallow, NaOH, water. 5% superfat. We pulled the quantities for the ingredients using soapcalc.net. My friend and I, carefully working out doors (temp around 7C) heated the...

Hi Everyone; Pleased to be here. Been lurking a long, long time, made my first batch of soap ever, yesterday… and nothing went as expected… 😁 So between finally starting to soap, and my first trial going so strangely, here I am! Red Osier