Lard V no Lard

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What on earth is GV shortening?
Specifically, it is the one with a picture of fried chicken on the label. It's made from beef tallow and palm oil.

Walmart has another Great Value 100% shortening that is made from other stuff, including hydrogenated soy. ETA: It has pictures of Pie (edited to fix) on the label.
 
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Here they are. Use the one with the fried chicken on the label.

GV veg.jpeg


GV meat.jpeg
 
Thank you everyone for the detailed explanation. Don't feel bad toxicon, that's the way it goes with all of us. Yes we have walmart and I am familiar with Great Value things but my brain just couldn't come up with it. I will choose the one with the chicken on it!
 
What on earth is GV shortening?

Great Value, a house brand at Walmart. It has tallow and palm in the mix. It is listed in SoapCalc and Soapee lye calculators as 'Walmart, GV Shortening. Some lye calculators do not include any kind of 'Shortening' in their listings, so you'd have to use one that does.

Oops, I don't know how I missed the answers before mine. Maybe I left the thread open and came back to it.

Incidentally, you will not necessarily find all versions available at all stores. Not all Walmart stores stock them.
 
That's ok, I was just about to ask how you determine sap value. But now another question, I have a friend who is allergic to both coconut and palm oil. Couldn't I just do a 75% lard and 25% olive oil soap?
 
I use lard in my bars unless they are bastile or 100% coconut oils. I fought the piggy smell battle also, but lately I haven't noticed it all. I have noticed the buckets of lard (green and white Armour buckets from Walmart) have been more consistent with their consistency (lol) in the last 6 months. Before , a couple of buckets were grainier and softer than others-I didn't 100% track it but I suspect those buckets were the batches I had piggy smells.

That said, not a single person I had sniff my soap , even after TELLING them to sniff for pig/bacon/oily smell, could smell the piggy. Mostly the sniffing sessions ended with "I want THAT bar!" LOL.

I will be playing with a vegan receipe, but my market so far goes for how the soap smells and works. Personally I like the lard bars because they are creamy vs snotty. I have no issues in the shower with them at all and they are on the standard wall soap dish (ceramic built in, does have the ridges).
 
Great Value, a house brand at Walmart. It has tallow and palm in the mix. It is listed in SoapCalc and Soapee lye calculators as 'Walmart, GV Shortening. Some lye calculators do not include any kind of 'Shortening' in their listings, so you'd have to use one that does.

Oops, I don't know how I missed the answers before mine. Maybe I left the thread open and came back to it.

Incidentally, you will not necessarily find all versions available at all stores. Not all Walmart stores stock them.

GV shortening has the same sap as lard, found that out when subbing out lard for GV in a recipe recently, the lye amount didn't change.

This is really convenient for me, that way I can use either lard/GV or even a mix and I don't have to recalculate my base recipe.
 
So if you were to make the 25-25-25-20-5 recipe mentioned earlier - you could also just go with 12.5% tallow, 37.5% lard, 25% high oleic sunflower, 20% coconut and 5% castor and get the same result, correct? Just thinking out loud, in case you can't find the GV Shortening.

ETA interesting how the numbers play out. The GVS version is a snidge harder and more conditioning.
 
Good to know the GV shortening makes nice soap, I bought some to play with. Not that I don't have a couple year's worth of soap already curing in the basement.

My lard recipe is 80% lard, 15% CO, and 5% OO or HOSafflower. Makes lovely soap, but Field lard makes it pink until it's well cured. Emge (local brand) is snow white.
 
...just wanted to say that thanks to this thread, I was prompted to make my first soap with lard. I have to admit I was a little skeptical and grossed-out while making it (don't ask me why, I'm not a vegetarian or anything). But, it's an awesome bar of soap- I love it! Thanks to everyone here for their advice! :)
 
Same, Cellador. I was the same- a bit grossed out too! I can totally smell it in my 100% lard soap, so I can't use that, but I can't smell it in any other soaps that I have made with a lower percentage. And, it's much easier to find than palm and definitely less expensive.
 
I'm new to the forum but I'm also quite the novice to soap making. I've made exactly ONE CP batch of evoo, coconut, sweet almond oil and castor, but I'm now in a place where I can't afford most of those oils. So now I want to make a pure lard soap, with maybe 5% castor oil. Is there a minimum SF% I should be aiming for? I have sensitive skin but no one else. Thanks for all these posts!! VERY enlightening!
 
I grew up in an era when one used what was readily available. We butcher our own meat, so lard is available. I use lard for some soap and palm for others. I do prefer palm oil, but lard makes creamy lather and is cheap, here.
 

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