melting lard, measuring, re-solidifying?

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celticjanis

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Can someone tell me if it's okay to melt down the solid oils (palm, coconut, tallow) and measure it to the amount needed in the recipe, put it into an individual container,
and then put it back in the refrigerator to solidify again then use for soapmaking? I assume I should keep the types of hard oils separate until I use them to make soap?
Thanks.
 
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I have fallen in love with master batching. I'm a hobbyist so I'm not doing this on a huge scale - I mix up enough oils to make about 16 lbs of soap and keep it in a 3 gallon bucket. I print out a bunch of copies of my recipe using different amounts - for example a few copies of a 1 log batch, a 2 log batch, etc. Then I stir it up and scoop it out.

I don't master batch the lye just b/c I'm not comfortable with that lye water floating around.

ETA: I am a hobbyist, not I am not a hobbyist. The point being that even if you are not making on a large scale, masterbatching can still be helpful.
 
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Can someone tell me if it's okay to melt down the solid oils (palm, coconut, tallow) and measure it to the amount needed in the recipe, put it into an individual container,
and then put it back in the refrigerator to solidify again then use for soapmaking? I assume I should keep the types of hard oils separate until I use them to make soap?
Thanks.

I saw your thread title and it brought to mind an experience I had not long ago.

I am not sure if it was even necessary, but thought I'd add a bit of ROE to a bucket of lard I had purchased, then also did the same to some palm shortening I had purchased. I melted each in a hot-water bath (separately at different times - they are not mixed oils), then added the appropriate amount of ROE for each respective container, then let them re-solidify at room temperature. Well, here's the thing. Neither of them got as solid as before. I did not think to put them in the fridge to see if that made a difference. I am sure this is really based on the addition of the ROE, not on the melting itself. So it probably has no bearing whatsoever on your plan to melt & prepare for batching.

But as for melting and re-portioning, I think it makes a lot of sense to do that when you use a uniform and predictable batch size with uniform and predictable measurements of specific oils. I have considered this for when I travel in order to bring along only what I need for a particular batch (or batches) and thus have less to lug around with me when I return home. So far I haven't quite managed that as well as I'd like. Although last trip worked out better than any previously in terms of not bringing home a lot of partially empty bottles of oil. So I guess I am making progress in that regard. I suppose part of the problem is that I am still in the experimental stage and want to try so many different variations on recipes that I keep trying different percentages and different oils and so forth, and that's why it's not working for me yet.
 
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