Cheap oil ---> good soap

[MarinaB]

Today at Costco I saw all kinds of cheap oils - corn, canola, vegetable, peanut and soybean oils. Can it be used for soapmaking??? I never used those oils. The cheapest I have ever used was beef tallow that I rendered myself. Beef fat got at an Amish farm.

 

[violets2217]

Today at Costco I saw all kinds of cheap oils - corn, canola, vegetable, peanut and soybean oils. Can it be used for soapmaking??? I never used those oils. The cheapest I have ever used was beef tallow that I rendered myself. Beef fat got at an Amish farm.

I started using canola in place of olive oil and I love it! I make a Shea butter soap with lard and canola and it’s the best soap ever! I just got some beef fat from a local butcher and put it in the freezer because I wasn’t sure how to render it. I’m still investigating! Can I just render it in a crock pot like pork fat?

 

[MarinaB]

I started using canola in place of olive oil and I love it! I make a Shea butter soap with lard and canola and it’s the best soap ever! I just got some beef fat from a local butcher and put it in the freezer because I wasn’t sure how to render it. I’m still investigating! Can I just render it in a crock pot like pork fat?

I used a crock pot. I put on medium temperature when I was home and on low if I was gone for a day. I bought about 25 kg of beef fat, was busy with that a week. Was happy that saved all plastic buckets. I put tallow in them and set it in a fridge.

From cutting beef fat I got a huge blister on my finger. I cut a lot of fat.

 

[Todd Ziegler]

You can definitely use those oils but of all the ones you mentioned, canola is the best of them all. The others are really not the best. Conola has a short shelf life, so I would keep it in the refrigerator.

 

[Rsapienza]

If it has a sap value, you can use itand I believe we even have a sap value for human fat somewhere around here

 

[Ladka]

From cutting beef fat I got a huge blister on my finger. I cut a lot of fat.

I usually have my farmer-butcher grind the tallow for me. Last time I bought it it was in the middle of harvest season and he did not have the time to do it. So I cut it manually (but far from any enormous quantity) - I won't do it again.

 

[cmzaha]

The canola from Costco, 35# tote is HO and will last a long time, and I use it a lot. I think the gallon bottle is regular Canola, but if you keep your percentage 20% or less you should not have any signs of DOS as long as you do not superfat high. I would recommend a 3% superfat when using regular Canola. I happen to love Canola in soap.

 

[MarinaB]

Thank you everyone for sharing your ideas.

The canola from Costco, 35# tote is HO and will last a long time, and I use it a lot. I think the gallon bottle is regular Canola, but if you keep your percentage 20% or less you should not have any signs of DOS as long as you do not superfat high. I would recommend a 3% superfat when using regular Canola. I happen to love Canola in soap.

Thank you very much! What are another oil do you use with canola oil?