TeaLeavesandTweed
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- Aug 24, 2015
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So I'm getting ready to make my first batch this week, using 50% tallow, 30% olive oil, and 20% coconut oil, with a 5% superfat/lye discount and no fragrance/color. But when I got home from the store, I discovered that what the store labeled "Beef Lard" (I know, right?), the farm had labeled "Lard, ingredients: pig fat."
Comparing it to partially-used containers of tallow and lard from the same farm, I'm 95% sure I have lard. I have enough tallow on hand to make a soap that is 30% tallow, 30% olive, 20% lard, and 20% coconut. Lard and tallow are close enough in SAP value that it will only change the superfat of my soap by 0.25 percentage points if I'm wrong. So the recipe should be fine.
But those of you who use a lot of lard vs. tallow, what is the difference in the properties of the soap they produce? I'm curious because I was eventually going to try to go to all-tallow, but if the farm has stopped distributing tallow to the market, it'll be all-lard.
Comparing it to partially-used containers of tallow and lard from the same farm, I'm 95% sure I have lard. I have enough tallow on hand to make a soap that is 30% tallow, 30% olive, 20% lard, and 20% coconut. Lard and tallow are close enough in SAP value that it will only change the superfat of my soap by 0.25 percentage points if I'm wrong. So the recipe should be fine.
But those of you who use a lot of lard vs. tallow, what is the difference in the properties of the soap they produce? I'm curious because I was eventually going to try to go to all-tallow, but if the farm has stopped distributing tallow to the market, it'll be all-lard.