Oh Lard, What's That Smell?

[cgsample]

Been soaping for about a year now, exclusively shaving soaps, and ran out of beef tallow. Thought I substitute lard in a recipe since the lard was easily obtainable. Oh god it stinks!

Hate to waste the KOH and stearic acid, but this batch has to be dumped.

 

[Susie]

Whoa! Not so fast!

The smell can be covered by almost any fragrance or essential oil. What about rebatching it with some smell good?

 

[shunt2011]

I agree, I wouldn't toss it. The only time I get a piggy smell is if it over cooked/heated. But with a FO or EO I the mix it will cure out generally.

 

[gdawgs]

I have the opposite problem. I make all my batches with lard and never have any odor issues. I made one batch with tallow and it stinks. I rebatched it and it still stinks. I should have used a stronger scent. Not sure what to do with it now. I don't want to rebatch it again.

 

[Susie]

I have the opposite problem. I make all my batches with lard and never have any odor issues. I made one batch with tallow and it stinks. I rebatched it and it still stinks. I should have used a stronger scent. Not sure what to do with it now. I don't want to rebatch it again.

I hate rebatching. I shred soap up and use it as confetti in a couple of other batches. Just make sure to use a strong contrasting color. That way you can claim you meant to do that.

 

[gdawgs]

I hate rebatching. I shred soap up and use it as confetti in a couple of other batches. Just make sure to use a strong contrasting color. That way you can claim you meant to do that.

I've never done this, so it might be a good time to try. So do you basically just add shreds to the bowl and mix in right before you pour into the mold?

 

[Susie]

Yes, pretty much. I've found I can use a maximum of one part soap shreds to two parts new soap. Any more than that and you get clumping and your bars will be weak and crumbly.

 

[dillsandwitch]

Also the lardy smell does fade away after a good cure. I made some lard soaps over a year ago that smelt absolutly horrid for a good couple months. I found a bar on the shelf a couple weeks ago and man is it good. No piggy smell, just the FO I used. This prompted me to make a few more batches of lard soap to be "forgotten" about for the next year or so.

But yeah during the making process boy does it smell bad. All the lard I have found here smells so piggy even before I melt it

 

[Susie]

I just don't get that much lardy smell if I use an FO or EO. I have yet to detect the lardy smell after about a week.

 

[lsg]

I was going to suggest waiting for the lard odor to fade, also.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not to forget that shaving soaps are cooked and often hot because of the stearic acid - heating lard too much brings out the stank

 

[Obsidian]

I've found replacing tallow with lard in shaving soap not to be very good. It just didn't have the same slip, I ended up tossing it.