Newby questions about tallow

[Kay]

I know I might get into trouble with a few of you vegan people. If you are one of those, please don't read any more. I live on a farm and we have a lot of tallow still walking around on four legs. Anyway, my question is this. How long does tallow keep IN soap? I got just a little bit of suet the other day, since reading where someone else here uses it in soap and loves it. I know how to render it. But while reading about rendering I heard that you should keep it in the refrigerator or that it will keep for about a week at room temperature. This leads me to question how long it will last in soap. Do I want this in my soap? I know things like olive oil will keep for a year or better. What about tallow? I don't want to have to keep my soap in the refrigerator/freezer to keep it from spoiling. Also, about what percentage would I want in soap if I do use it? A large percent or a small percent? What exactly are the benefits of using tallow? How does it act at trace etc? Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[VanessaP]

The percentage of tallow can be anything you want. I have used up to 40% but I know that there are people who make 100% tallow bars, just like 100% lard bars as well. If your soap is properly made, you shouldn't have any issue with it at all. I know soapers who have 20 year old goat's milk soaps that are still perfect. Tallow is conditioning just like lard, acts a lot like lard in general. I have heard soapers on FB say that the higher the tallow amount, the higher superfat you should use but YMMY because everyone has a different threshold for oils. I did my 40% tallow from 7 to 9% and its wonderful. I think it has a bit more drag to it than lard does, but I like that because I hate the slickness of high OO soaps.

 

[MaitriBB]

I doubt anyone will get offended by tallow questions - any reasonable soaper knows that some soapers use tallow/lard/animal fat in their soaps.

The process of saponification should take care of any issues that you might have had with the tallow going rancid, just like any other oil/fat.

 

[Yooper]

Tallow is wonderful in soap! I've participated in a few threads about this recently, as last fall I just started rendering deer tallow as well as beef tallow.

It keeps indefinitely in soap, just as other good quality oils do. For food use, I freeze tallow cubes (for frying) but in soap, just regular storage conditions are great.

Tallow makes a white hard bar of soap, and I love it!

Soapcalc.net has the saponification values for beef as well as deer tallow, to help with formulating recipes.

My favorite recipe has been 40% beef tallow, 8% castor oil, 35% olive oil, and 17% coconut oil with a superfat of 8%. It's hard, cleansing, conditioning, very creamy with good lather. I love it!

Since I homebrew, I made another soap I could highly recommend. It was 50% deer tallow (beef tallow would be great), 22% coconut oil, 22% olive oil, and 6% castor (again, 8% superfat) and 100% of the liquid was condensed/boiled oatmeal stout. It's a great bar of sap, and everybody loves it.

For even greater results, adding some goat's milk at trace is wonderful in both of these soaps.

I also have made 100% tallow soaps, and they are wonderful as well. For one of them, I used beer (again, homebrewed beer) for the liquid instead of water so it's a really 100% "homemade" soap. It turned out so well that I would encourage anybody to make a 100% tallow soap/

 

[three_little_fishes]

I doubt anyone will get offended by tallow questions - any reasonable soaper knows that some soapers use tallow/lard/animal fat in their soaps.

I can't help with your question since I'm one of the vegans around. But, not offended. Promise. :smile:

I still like to read these threads and learn about qualities of different fats. It's all interesting to me. Plus, my first bar of cold process soap was far from vegan. It had milk and honey. But, it was just a recipe that someone had given me so I sucked it up and tried it out just to learn the soapmaking process. I've given it all away though. Lol!

 

[Lilahblossom]

I'm like Yooper. I love my tallow. For each lb. of tallow, I add two oz coconut oil and half oz. castor oil. So I just plug it into soap calc. then. Sometimes I add some EVOO. Maybe an oz. or two per lb of tallow. Lately have been adding an oz. of honey for two lb. batch. Seems kind of strange the way I figure but it works for me. I soap at 7%.
And I never discount water unless I am figuring in beer beer or goat milk.

 

[DeeAnna]

I think some of the differing advice about how to properly store tallow has to do with how pure the fat is after the rendering process. If there is any water or small bits of tissue left in the tallow, that can cause problems. If there is any doubt, I'd store it in the freezer for long term storage. If you can get the tallow really clean and dry, room temp storage might be perfectly fine.

 

[jcandleattic]

If the soap is made properly and it doesn't get dos, as with any soap, it can last for years! No need to refrigerate or freeze your soap.
However, since I don't use tallow or lard in my soaps (not against it, I just personally don't use it) I don't really know the process of how it's stored before it's in soap.