Beef tallow + possibly some bone marrow for CP soap

[Ladka]

I've skimmed fat from cooled down beef soup (or broth?) twice and froze one portion and refrigerated the other. The fat was refrigerated non-covered and seemed to shrink during the week before it was used. The frozen and thawed portion also shrank and I decanted some liquid. So I believe it was mostly pure fat that remained in both cases.
In the soapmaking recipe builder I entered the quantity under beef tallow although I believe there is also some marrow. I added walnut oil (because it had to be used before expiry date), some coconut oil for hardness and bubbling and a little bit of castor oil.
I tried to cover the slightly soup-y odour with patchouli and mint FOs at 3 % of total oils.
After almost 24 hrs at room temp it is softer than refrigerated fresh milk butter. As I poured it into a milk carton and will have to cut it to unmold the soap I just can not decide whether to do it straightaway or leave it to harden a bit more. It's half past nine in the evening and I just don't know if it hardens too muchj in additional eight hours.

 

[Kcryss]

I've skimmed fat from cooled down beef soup (or broth?) twice and froze one portion and refrigerated the other. The fat was refrigerated non-covered and seemed to shrink during the week before it was used. The frozen and thawed portion also shrank and I decanted some liquid. So I believe it was mostly pure fat that remained in both cases.
In the soapmaking recipe builder I entered the quantity under beef tallow although I believe there is also some marrow. I added walnut oil (because it had to be used before expiry date), some coconut oil for hardness and bubbling and a little bit of castor oil.
I tried to cover the slightly soup-y odour with patchouli and mint FOs at 3 % of total oils.
After almost 24 hrs at room temp it is softer than refrigerated fresh milk butter. As I poured it into a milk carton and will have to cut it to unmold the soap I just can not decide whether to do it straightaway or leave it to harden a bit more. It's half past nine in the evening and I just don't know if it hardens too muchj in additional eight hours.

Maybe there is still a little extra water? Give it a bit more time and see if it gets any harder. The first time I made soap from home rendered animal fat it did basically the same thing. Took a week or more to harden.

 

[Ladka]

I did unmold it late yesterday evening and cut it. Still a bit too soft but will harden with time I believe.
I still wonder what is the bone marrow fatty acid profile ...

 

[Kcryss]

I did unmold it late yesterday evening and cut it. Still a bit too soft but will harden with time I believe.
I still wonder what is the bone marrow fatty acid profile ...

That's a good question. I know that I have the butcher grind the fat for me so I know there is likely bone marrow and few other things as well. The lard gets fairly hard after rendering, but the tallow get really hard. Hard enough that when I cut it into pieces it breaks off in chunks and it's hard to actually cut all the way through. I don't know if that is typical of lard and tallow or just what happens with what I get from the butcher.

I didn't clean the first batch of fat I used for soap and it smelled when you washed your hands with it ... I couldn't get the smell off my hands. It has since calmed down and isn't too bad. I learned from that batch though that it's best to clean the fat before using. It not only decreased the smell a great deal, but also gets rid of the extra bits etc.