Deer Tallow Soap.

[CucumberMonkey]

Hi everyone. Brand new to soap making. Ive made 2 batches following some youtube video, and I think they turned out well.
Anyway this my first time trying to come up with my own recipe using the soap calculator. I think I have a grasp of it, my main confusion is the water%.
Is there any reason the following recipe wont work? Im a guy so I dont really care about fancy soap or scents. Its deer season and I just figure why waste the fat if I can make something useful out of it. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[Obsidian]

Looks like a decent soap. Its a bit high on the cleansing but I find most guys don't have mind too much.
If you have dry skin, you might want to drop the coconut oil down to 20-25%

Soapcalc has the default water setting as water to percent of oils and its really not the best way.
Go back to soapcalc and under the water setting you will also see lye concentration and water:lye concentration. Tick the lye concentration one and put in 33, that's the most commonly used and recommended setting.

 

[violets2217]

I really wanna try a tallow soap like this. I have 5lbs of beef fat in the freezer to render and try, but keep forgetting about it. If you do lower the the coconut oil for a less harsh soap, maybe add some castor oil for a nice bubble, but with the coconut oil I guess its not really necessary! I just love a bubble and 5% will do, but you can raise your olive oil or tallow percentage maybe either way. Good luck! Looks like a pretty cool soap!

 

[DeeAnna]

Some suggestions --

Use lye concentration rather than "water as % of lye". Change the lye concentration to 33%.

You have a lot of coconut oil in there so it may be rather drying especially going into winter. I'd drop it down some. I'd add the percent you reduce the coconut to the tallow percentage.

You have zero superfat. If you aren't an experienced soap maker and know this will work, I would change the superfat to at least 2%. You need a little insurance against not having excess lye in the soap and that's what a 2% superfat will do for you.

 

[CucumberMonkey]

Looks like a decent soap. Its a bit high on the cleansing but I find most guys don't have mind too much.
If you have dry skin, you might want to drop the coconut oil down to 20-25%

Soapcalc has the default water setting as water to percent of oils and its really not the best way.
Go back to soapcalc and under the water setting you will also see lye concentration and water:lye concentration. Tick the lye concentration one and put in 33, that's the most commonly used and recommended setting.

Yes skin does get dry in the winter here so I'll make those adjustments. Thanks for the pointers

I really wanna try a tallow soap like this. I have 5lbs of beef fat in the freezer to render and try, but keep forgetting about it. If you do lower the the coconut oil for a less harsh soap, maybe add some castor oil for a nice bubble, but with the coconut oil I guess its not really necessary! I just love a bubble and 5% will do, but you can raise your olive oil or tallow percentage maybe either way. Good luck! Looks like a pretty cool soap!

I'll lower the coconut oil. Im trying to keep it as simple as possible, maybe in the future if I get more comfortable making soap I'll start adding more than 3 oils.

Some suggestions --

Use lye concentration rather than "water as % of lye". Change the lye concentration to 33%.

You have a lot of coconut oil in there so it may be rather drying especially going into winter. I'd drop it down some. I'd add the percent you reduce the coconut to the tallow percentage.

You have zero superfat. If you aren't an experienced soap maker and know this will work, I would change the superfat to at least 2%. You need a little insurance against not having excess lye in the soap and that's what a 2% superfat will do for you.

The tallow smells like grease. I was under the impression if I set it to 0 it would leave no unconverted tallow.

If I got the formula for 2% Would it be possible to mix the all of the lye water with the tallow first and convert all of it to soap and then mix the tallow soap/lye with the olive and coconut oil and all the excess lye then converts the oils to soap?

 

[DeeAnna]

"...If I got the formula for 2% Would it be possible to mix the all of the lye water with the tallow first and convert all of it to soap and then mix the tallow soap/lye with the olive and coconut oil and all the excess lye then converts the oils to soap?..."

Yes you could do that. A hot process method would be the easiest way to accomplish this. You don't even have to hold back all of the olive and coconut. Just, oh, say 3-4 ounces for your 62 oz batch. (I hope you realize this is a really large batch for a new soaper and are ready for that. We normally suggest beginners make 16 oz (500 g) batches to start with.)

If the fat has a definite rancid/gamey odor, the smell might well persist in the soap, even if you soap at zero superfat. The chemicals that cause the odor aren't necessarily destroyed by reacting with lye. If a fat smells bad, it's best to fix the problem first and then make soap. More: Rancidity and DOS | Soapy Stuff

 

[Obsidian]

When you render your deer fat, don't over heat it and wash it a couple times if its smelly. I got bear fat this year that was absolutely awful but after rendering, it was scent free

 

[KimW]

Just to chime in on the smell of the fat - @Obsidian and @DeeAnna are spot on. Be mindful of your heat when rendering your deer fat and wash it a couple of times. You can even render it a couple of times too. Using pure salt, like pickling salt, for rendering can also help avoid any off smell - that is, use salt with no additives. It's going to be great soap!

 

[Guspuppy]

How does one wash fat when rendering? I've never heard of this before! I've always thought there was too much meat mixed in with deer fat to try rendering it, but if I could wash it....!

 

[DeeAnna]

You can only wash rendered, melted fat, not the raw material straight from the animal. Any wet-rendering method washes the fat to some degree.

But you can wash any fat, liquid or solid, animal or veggie, to remove odor and color. The basic idea is to mix and heat the fat with more water for a sufficiently long time. Salt is often used as well.

Washing isn't always 100% successful at fixing odor and color problems, but it can help, sometimes a lot.

The article I gave a link to in a previous post explains this washing method toward the end of the article.

 

[KimW]

@CucumberMonkey - I hope you'll update us with pictures of your finished soaps, and what you think of the smell, etc!

 

[TashaBird]

This is my favorite, easiest way to render. My skin is really sensitive to coconut oil, I would drop it to about 15%, and up the tallow that amount, or add another oil, depending on how much tallow you have.

 

[Guspuppy]

Thank you DeeAnna!

Tasha that video is exactly what I needed. Thank you!!

now I just need to find some deer fat, and order some beef fat from the butcher.

Also, CucumberMonkey, my very first batch of soap was something like 56 oz oils and it came out fine. Good luck!!

 

[CucumberMonkey]

"...If I got the formula for 2% Would it be possible to mix the all of the lye water with the tallow first and convert all of it to soap and then mix the tallow soap/lye with the olive and coconut oil and all the excess lye then converts the oils to soap?..."

Yes you could do that. A hot process method would be the easiest way to accomplish this. You don't even have to hold back all of the olive and coconut. Just, oh, say 3-4 ounces for your 62 oz batch. (I hope you realize this is a really large batch for a new soaper and are ready for that. We normally suggest beginners make 16 oz (500 g) batches to start with.)

If the fat has a definite rancid/gamey odor, the smell might well persist in the soap, even if you soap at zero superfat. The chemicals that cause the odor aren't necessarily destroyed by reacting with lye. If a fat smells bad, it's best to fix the problem first and then make soap. More: Rancidity and DOS | Soapy Stuff

Im trying for around 4 lbs because that's what my first soaps were and they filled up my molds nicely. Right now Im using those silocone 6 cavity ones you see on Amazon.

When you render your deer fat, don't over heat it and wash it a couple times if its smelly. I got bear fat this year that was absolutely awful but after rendering, it was scent free

Just to chime in on the smell of the fat - @Obsidian and @DeeAnna are spot on. Be mindful of your heat when rendering your deer fat and wash it a couple of times. You can even render it a couple of times too. Using pure salt, like pickling salt, for rendering can also help avoid any off smell - that is, use salt with no additives. It's going to be great soap!

Ok thanks. I'll look into the specifics of rendering and clarifying to see if I can improve my method.

@CucumberMonkey - I hope you'll update us with pictures of your finished soaps, and what you think of the smell, etc!

Will do.

Thank you DeeAnna!

Tasha that video is exactly what I needed. Thank you!!

now I just need to find some deer fat, and order some beef fat from the butcher.

Also, CucumberMonkey, my very first batch of soap was something like 56 oz oils and it came out fine. Good luck!!

Thanks. Im going to try some of the butchers around here to see if they'll let me have some fat from a deer. I messed up my batch, which is why Im here now. Just to make sure I have a viable recipe. Somehow I ended up with like 50% more "soap" than I was supposed to so I think I read something wrong when measuring because it's only getting as hard as fudge. Or my scale is way off. I should probably get some check weights to make sure it's accurate.

 

[TashaBird]

Thank you DeeAnna!

Tasha that video is exactly what I needed. Thank you!!

now I just need to find some deer fat, and order some beef fat from the butcher.

Also, CucumberMonkey, my very first batch of soap was something like 56 oz oils and it came out fine. Good luck!!

I hunt, but haven’t gotten anything g since I started making soap.

 

[CucumberMonkey]

So this is from my batch that I thought had failed(that I made before I was a member here), because it never made a trace. I stirred it for like an hour. Finally I gave up and just poured it into my moulds. I was going to toss it a couple days later, but when I pulled it out it had set up. It has some funny layer on top though that is soft. You can see it in the picture. I actually dont remember what recipe I used, but I suspect I messed up the measurements anyway.
Im still waiting for some deer fat from some lady for my next batch. Which I plan to follow the advice of posters here.