Replacing lard

[lenarenee]

I've taken an informal poll on social media and found 75% of respondents (all from several square miles surrounding me) said they would not buy handmade soap made with lard.

Fine. (pouting. sticking out tongue) Then I'll treat myself to some organic lard and tallow from Fannie and Flo and keep it all to myself and my "real" friends and neighbors! (still pouting)

There's no use trying to educate them into how using lard is actually more environmentally useful than palm oil. Or that it's fatty acid profile nearly matches human skin. Or that it's makes a unique, thick voluminous type of creamy lather that you can't get from anything else....or can you?

It's been a long time since I used palm, shea butter, mango butter, etc. in soap. (Lard knocks them out of the park in my opinion!) Is there any oil that mimics that special thick creamy lather that lard produces? (please don't say tallow, because I don't think it compares). Thanks!

 

[Saponificarian]

Duck fat/Goose fat? I mean I don’t know what lard lather feels like because I can’t use it but I get that voluminous lather with the goose fat/Tallow combo soap I made.

Maybe try it if they are not averse to duck/goose/chicken fat. I am guessing it will be more expensive than lard though.

 

[KimT2au]

Rather than labelling it as lard could you not just say "animal fats" and answer honestly if directly asked what animal fat.

 

[cmzaha]

It is interesting that I have sold soap in your area with no problems selling soap with lard. Don't ask, just try selling it and see what happens. There is a lot of boaters and fishermen/ fisherwomen in your area. Things like that usually do not bother them.

 

[amd]

Someone had posted a lard/tallow replacement recipe. I thought I had copied and emailed it to myself but can't seem to find it in my recipes folder. More than likely I plugged it into SM3 and then deleted the email. I do not remember if it was palm-free or not though. I'll search the forum and see if I can find it.

ETA: Found it! https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/replace-lard.60723/#post-608370

 

[DeeAnna]

I was going to say much the same as Carolyn. If you ask a direct question, you'll get direct answers, but the answers don't necessarily translate into how a shopper makes choices when buying.

Whether a person buys my soap or not seems to be more related to smell, first and foremost, and appearance and whether the soap seems to be a good value in proportion to its price. I've only had one person ever ask if I made soap without animal fats.

 

[Dahila]

Irony of life the once that are so against the lard in soaps , are making soaps with lard, Poll on fb does not give you the true, I have an ability to remember what i see, probably years on forums, and chats trained my memory. I can remember in the fb group who uses lard and sell it, You would be surprised,
I would not use Canola, in soaps even people say it is very good. I got the block, use only oils I could use for foods.....
DeeAnna is right , I have just one person in the last 4 years on market asking if I use animal fats, People do not ask for it, nor check the labels, I am the one asking them if they have any allergies.

 

[tblonde1]

I've taken an informal poll on social media and found 75% of respondents (all from several square miles surrounding me) said they would not buy handmade soap made with lard.

Fine. (pouting. sticking out tongue) Then I'll treat myself to some organic lard and tallow from Fannie and Flo and keep it all to myself and my "real" friends and neighbors! (still pouting)

There's no use trying to educate them into how using lard is actually more environmentally useful than palm oil. Or that it's fatty acid profile nearly matches human skin. Or that it's makes a unique, thick voluminous type of creamy lather that you can't get from anything else....or can you?

It's been a long time since I used palm, shea butter, mango butter, etc. in soap. (Lard knocks them out of the park in my opinion!) Is there any oil that mimics that special thick creamy lather that lard produces? (please don't say tallow, because I don't think it compares). Thanks!

I've taken an informal poll on social media and found 75% of respondents (all from several square miles surrounding me) said they would not buy handmade soap made with lard.

Fine. (pouting. sticking out tongue) Then I'll treat myself to some organic lard and tallow from Fannie and Flo and keep it all to myself and my "real" friends and neighbors! (still pouting)

There's no use trying to educate them into how using lard is actually more environmentally useful than palm oil. Or that it's fatty acid profile nearly matches human skin. Or that it's makes a unique, thick voluminous type of creamy lather that you can't get from anything else....or can you?

It's been a long time since I used palm, shea butter, mango butter, etc. in soap. (Lard knocks them out of the park in my opinion!) Is there any oil that mimics that special thick creamy lather that lard produces? (please don't say tallow, because I don't think it compares). Thanks!

It is a difficult topic to discuss. It’s almost as if they think we went a killed a poor defenseless animal to make a loaf of soap. :-/
I agree with another comment/ make your best and explain if asked. I think people will buy it.

 

[lenarenee]

I was going to say much the same as Carolyn. If you ask a direct question, you'll get direct answers, but the answers don't necessarily translate into how a shopper makes choices when buying.

Whether a person buys my soap or not seems to be more related to smell, first and foremost, and appearance and whether the soap seems to be a good value in proportion to its price. I've only had one person ever ask if I made soap without animal fats.

Yes, I agree. I've given away a lot of soap and many don't even ask, or look at the label. But lately I've had some call me back and ask/comment on the lard and they were disappointed, but reluctant to say anything. They asked if I had something without lard. There are a lot of people in my area who are more "environmental" or vegetarian. The soaps in our Trader Joe's, Jimbo's, private Whole Foods type stores, craft fairs are all vegetable. So some people are "trained" to assume handmade soap is vegetable (at least that's my personal theory)

It's not just the issue of having "lard" on the label, I'm also interested in increasing shelf life. In the spring I made hundreds of bars of soap with the intent to sell. Our house disaster and other things changed that. Even though the soaps are shrink wrapped and stored well, they're several months old. After quitting my college class, I have time to sell, but hesitate because months of their shelf life are over. I know my lard soaps (except those with lavender e.o.) can easily last a year, unwrapped, without dos. I don't know how that works out with shrink wrap. This is the time of year people will start buying for Christmas gifts - so I want a soap that will last a year after Christmas.

This is a big reason as why I'm thinking about palm. And I think more people will buy if it's palm instead of lard.

 

[lenarenee]

Someone had posted a lard/tallow replacement recipe. I thought I had copied and emailed it to myself but can't seem to find it in my recipes folder. More than likely I plugged it into SM3 and then deleted the email. I do not remember if it was palm-free or not though. I'll search the forum and see if I can find it.

ETA: Found it! https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/replace-lard.60723/#post-608370

Thank you. And thank you Irish Lass.

Oh boy. Just imagine the difference in swirling time. Plam, shea, coconut,....not to mention that this recipe will heat up more than 60% lard. And be more yellowish - which means using td more often...which means thicker batter.... These picky people had better like solid colored bars!!!

 

[Obsidian]

I did a direct comparison between lard and palm with my main recipe. I found palm does lather pretty good but really lacks the oomph of lard.
I would suggest trying a couple test batches, one with 10% shea and the other with 20% shea with palm making up the difference.

Surprisingly, a blend of palm and lard was really nice. If I didn't hate using palm, I would use it with lard more often.

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

Why do you hate using palm @Obsidian?

 

[Obsidian]

Why do you hate using palm @Obsidian?

It traces too fast and I have trouble with DOS when used in higher amounts.

 

[lenarenee]

It traces too fast and I have trouble with DOS when used in higher amounts.

Really? And here I was thinking that palm instead of lard would extend shelf life. What do you consider a higher amount of palm?

 

[Alfa_Lazcares]

It traces too fast and I have trouble with DOS when used in higher amounts.

Oh yes, I just found out it thickens very fast, to make maters worse the mica didnt wanted to blend with the batter (i could see the specs of it) so i had to stick blend more and ended up with a very thick batter.

 

[cmzaha]

Unlike Obsidian I have trouble with dos in lard soaps and none with high palm. My vegan recipe is 40-45% palm

 

[Obsidian]

I made a unscented, uncolored batch with 50% palm. It was covered in dos in three months, I had to throw it all out.
The other soaps on the same shelf were just fine.

 

[Rowan]

It's interesting to hear that others have had DOS with palm. I generally use palm in my soaps at about 30-33% and luckily haven't had this problem.

It does trace faster than lard and I have to be careful with the stickblender but there is still enough time to swirl.

I absolutely love the lather from lard soaps but have found them to be a bit drying on my skin, which is a real shame. I'm going to play with the recipe to see if I can find something that works, as I can't believe how long lard recipes give you to swirl.

if I use palm and shea butter I don't notice a decrease in trace time but I tend to keep the shea at 10%. I found palm and mango butter gave me lovely creamy bubbles but was a bit expensive!