I bought a can of the WalMart "Great Value" Shortening, the "meat" one made with tallow and palm, to see if I like using tallow. (I didn't want to order 7 pounds of the stuff, only to find out that I don't care for it!) Hopefully the shortening has a high enough percentage of tallow to give me a good idea of how it behaves. I've read it's as much as 98% tallow.
I've only tried lard once so far, and I was very put off by the odor. I realize that could be because of the brand I used, or an issue with my process, so I'll be testing it again at some point.
I'll be soaping with the tallow shortening sometime this week. I was very pleased that I didn't detect any kind of odor when I opened the can to check it out. So I have two questions:
1. What are the chances that it will start to smell when it's heated up? (I mostly do oven HP.) I just want to be prepared!
2. If I like it, and I end up ordering some pure tallow (been looking at Soaper's Choice, would probably order it there), what are the chances that the pure tallow WILL have an odor? In other words: is it possible that the shortening smells neutral because of the way it's made/processed, but the plain tallow will not smell so neutral?
There MUST have been something wrong with the lard I used. Or I did something wrong. The soap still reeks, even though it's been several months. It's not a "bacon" smell, and I'm not even sure I'd say it's an "animal smell," but it sure is a nasty smell.
I've only tried lard once so far, and I was very put off by the odor. I realize that could be because of the brand I used, or an issue with my process, so I'll be testing it again at some point.
I'll be soaping with the tallow shortening sometime this week. I was very pleased that I didn't detect any kind of odor when I opened the can to check it out. So I have two questions:
1. What are the chances that it will start to smell when it's heated up? (I mostly do oven HP.) I just want to be prepared!
2. If I like it, and I end up ordering some pure tallow (been looking at Soaper's Choice, would probably order it there), what are the chances that the pure tallow WILL have an odor? In other words: is it possible that the shortening smells neutral because of the way it's made/processed, but the plain tallow will not smell so neutral?
There MUST have been something wrong with the lard I used. Or I did something wrong. The soap still reeks, even though it's been several months. It's not a "bacon" smell, and I'm not even sure I'd say it's an "animal smell," but it sure is a nasty smell.