I have elk and deer tallow now!!!

[My Mountain Soaps]

My husband and i both were blessed enough to fill our bull and buck tags. So now i need recipes! I have no idea how to make my own recipe, as i am very un-learned about the subject and soapcalc.net. would any of you be willing to share your recipes with me, or teach me how to create my own recipes? thank you so much! and thank you Lord for the animals you blessed us with!!!

 

[Obsidian]

Here is a recipe I made with some of my deer tallow, it's a nice bar.

Deer Tallow 16oz
Olive Oil 10oz
Castor Oil 2oz
Palm Kernel Oil 5oz

Water 10 oz
Lye 4.224 oz

 

[lsg]

What percentage of tallow were you thinking of using? Here is a recipe from Miller's website. I would try a one pound batch first just to get the experience. I would study the information on Kathy Miller's website. She is very knowledgeable.

http://www.millersoap.com/soapanimal.html#TallowSoap

Here is her recipe resized to use one pound of oils and fats:

Deer Tallow 8.4 oz
Olive Oil 3.8 oz
Coconut Oil 3.8 oz

Water 6 oz
Sodium Hydroxide 2.2 oz

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

thank you both very much! Now here is another question for you. Does it matter which tallow you use? i mean, when i go to make an elk tallow soap next, can i use the same amount, or will it create a different result being that it is from a different animal? also, have either of you (Or anyone else who may read this) ever done a combination of tallow and lanolin soap? I wonder what that would yield?

 

[lsg]

I think that deer and elk tallow will be so similar that it won't make any difference.

 

[judymoody]

I have soaped with both deer and elk tallow (some of it from Colorado, even!) If you haven't already rendered it, I recommend using some aromatic herbs like fresh rosemary and mint which helps hide the slightly meaty smell and don't let it get too hot.

I use the SAP value on soapcalc.net for deer tallow for either elk or deer. SAP values are an approximation and there can be slight variance from animal to animal (or plant to plant for that matter). That's why we build in superfat to our recipes to ensure a margin for error to make sure the end product is not lye heavy.

I would try using tallow at 30-50% of your recipe. It makes a nice hard bar.

I generally don't soap with animal fats but my husband hunts so if he brings home an animal, I will honor it and him by using the fat for a useful purpose. His buddies love tallow soap.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

I generally don't soap with animal fats but my husband hunts so if he brings home an animal, I will honor it and him by using the fat for a useful purpose.[/QUOTE]

I love that statement. You sound like a person after my own heart

 

[dixiedragon]

thank you both very much! Now here is another question for you. Does it matter which tallow you use? i mean, when i go to make an elk tallow soap next, can i use the same amount, or will it create a different result being that it is from a different animal? also, have either of you (Or anyone else who may read this) ever done a combination of tallow and lanolin soap? I wonder what that would yield?

I am sooo jealous of you! My mom hunts, but she has never gotten a fatty deer and I sooo want to make deer soap! How much you have? I live in Alabama, so I think that with our much warmer climate that our deer don't accumulate fat like they do in colder areas.

I don't see elk tallow on any of the lye calculators, so I think using the numbers for deer tallow would be fine. In your place, I would do one batch with 100% elk tallow, just to try it out. Maybe a small 1 lb batch.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Yeah that is what i plan on doing, an experimental batch first. The deer and elk both are still at the butcher curing, so i am not sure how much i will get from both animals. The bull weighed approx 750 pounds with hide and antlers still on. The buck was around 200 pounds with hide and antler. Both were pretty fatty, so i am hoping that the butcher does a good job and saves all the fat possible. But i will let you know, and will be sure to post pics when the soap is done. It will be a few weeks though

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Dixiedragon, i also understand what it means to live in the south, i am from Texas. I had a hard time managing weight on my dogs due to the heat, so i completely understand what the deer are like down there. They are the size of dogs, and are lean lean lean. Maybe you can contact your local butcher and ask to have some of the fat, as most butchers dont use the fat and put it back into the meat, as it lends to gaminess. Maybe you can get some that way, from other hunters who dont use the fat. THats what i do for bones and such for my dogs, go pester the local butcher

 

[paillo]

My Mountain Soaps, where in Colorado are you? I'm a native Aspenite, transplanted to central Virginia. I do so miss Colorado, hoping to be soaping back there in a few years.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Well as it turns out, the butcher informed us that there was basically no fat on our animals, they were so lean. Which, growing up in the country where they were taken, i completely understand how an animal can have no fat in it. That is some rough country. Anyway, the butcher gave me the fat from the next deer he processed, and that deer was super fat. The butcher cleaned the fat pretty well, and i cleaned it a little further. After rendering it in the oven like one of the patrons on this website suggested. It yielded five pounds of good clean fat! wow! but my one concern is that it smells a little bit like bacon? one batch (The first one) did get burned a bit, the rest i was careful of. Do you think that that smell will go away in soaping? i do plan on using EO's, something like juniper (I dont have pine), clary sage, somewhere along that line. any suggestions or tips to deal with the smell is welcome! oh, i plan on following one of recipes on this post, so graciously provided by others here. So i dont plan to do 100% tallow.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

paillo, i just saw this post, sorry! i am from Rifle, just an hour or two away from aspen. The colors are just starting to fade here, but along the river they are still going pretty well. We've had snow once here, i am sure aspen has gotten hit more than us

 

[CaraBou]

I think you will get past the natural scent, even if it lingers. You will have a very unique bar that helps you remember the real world and where resources come from. Can't think of a better way to start the day.

I hunt too, and know how humbling it is take a life and how important it is to use all parts possible. You rock!

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Thank you Carabou! i am so appreciative of the fact that you understand that. There are not many people that do. The hides are being tanned for projects, the legs went for chew toys for the dogs (I currently have a fat but happy jack russel. I swear he put on at least two pounds from elk! And he normally is fit and lean (See pic below)! my other dogs didnt gain a pound!). Anyway, thanks for the praise and tips!

 

[Obsidian]

My 100% deer tallow soap hasn't lost its meaty smell. I would recommend using some kind of scent if you use a large % of tallow in your recipe.

 

[lsg]

We always feed our dogs the scraps from deer hunting time and when we butcher animals raised on our farm. Our dogs get slick and shiny on this diet, much more so than with commercial dog food.

 

[CaraBou]

I remember my lab Esa trying to carry around an elk leg. Dogs take such pride in that sort of thing! But it was so heavy, she could never make it far, and she would have to figure out how to balance it to make it anywhere it all. Oh how I miss her! My DH recently harvested a moose and we both thought of her and how it probably would have been impossible for her to pick up one of its legs. BTW, even his big bull moose didn't have much fat on it. No moose soap for me.

 

[My Mountain Soaps]

Well i actually made the soap today, i did a two pound recipe, but i wound up with extra, that is odd, i took a base recipe and doubled it. I guess that is what i get for assuming the base recipe was for sure 1lb! Anyway, i got a little concerned at trace, it took about 3-4 minutes of mixing for it to trace, but when it did, man it thickened fast! So fast that when i realized my mold was too small, it started to thicken in the pan before i found the tupperware. I wound up using .64 oz of cedar wood essential oil to mask the meat smell, and so far i can't smell deer at all, and only smell a little bit of cedar. My husband chose the cedar scent. I cant wait to see how well the bar works! thanks all for all your help!

 

[CaraBou]

Love it, it's gonna be nice!