Two different superfats soap recipe

[user 57977]

Hi:
New here, not new to soap making, so I looked online in searches, no results, no results here either. Was given lard, melted it, wood stove uncontrollable (building house, only kitchen propane stove as of yet) too hot so that an some cracklings. I have enough for some bars, but I have a large can of vegetable shortening. Was wondering if I can melt them on low heat together and make soap, or does that not work? Always used one type at a time, made lots of bars. Never tried it; just need to know is all. Thanks in Advance.

Zukester,
Zucchini Acres,
Grimsley, TN

 

[Carly B]

It will work, BUT you need to use a lye calc for the combined blend. If your shortening is the Walmart GV, it has it's own entry on SoapCalc. So you just take how much of that and how much lard and go from there. Just treat it like using different oils or butters.

If it's not Walmart GV, if your shortening is a blend and it lists percentages, you'll need to take all that into consideration too. It can be a bit challenging (I don't use shortening, but I had a butter blend of 50% shea, 25% mango, and 25% cocoa butter, and it required a bit of "mathing" to use it with other oils. But it can be done.

 

[AliOop]

As @Carly B said, you can definitely mix oils, fats, and butters - most of us do that, since a balanced blend of different fats makes for nicer soap.

However, each oil, fat, or butter will need a specific amount of lye to become soap. To get the correct amount of lye needed for your specific mix, you must always the types and amounts of oils into a soap calcul@tor.

If you aren't familiar with using those, various YouTube videos like this one explain how to use SoapCalc.net. My favorite is soapmakingfriend.com but as of yet, there are not videos that explain how to use it. But if you watch the videos on how to use SoapCalc.net, that should give you a good running start on using SoapmakingFriend.com.

 

[user 57977]

It will work, BUT you need to use a lye calc for the combined blend. If your shortening is the Walmart GV, it has it's own entry on SoapCalc. So you just take how much of that and how much lard and go from there. Just treat it like using different oils or butters.

If it's not Walmart GV, if your shortening is a blend and it lists percentages, you'll need to take all that into consideration too. It can be a bit challenging (I don't use shortening, but I had a butter blend of 50% shea, 25% mango, and 25% cocoa butter, and it required a bit of "mathing" to use it with other oils. But it can be done.

Well, probably not for the homeschoolers class this time. I have top try it first. I will just use the lard for this one and, with that, I appreciate the answer. All searches yielded zero results. I shall do it on my own though, just to experiment.