What soapy thing have you done today?

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I usually buy my tallow. But, I’ve been given a bunch of fat for free! How much do you render at once? Wet or dry render?
I like to do as much as possible at one time, because it's a messy job. Cleaning up once after 10lbs is much better than cleaning up 10x after 1lb batches! Also, it will render faster and more cleanly if you can run it all through a meat grinder first.

I start with dry rendering in my large electric turkey roaster pan out on the back patio. I strain off all the rendered fat into some smaller containers, preferably bowls that will easily release the chunk of tallow without having to dig into it. I let it all cool down to room temp, and then put it in the fridge.

After it has solidified, I take the chunk from the bowl, turn it over, and scrape off the bottom where the gunk has settled. I save all the bottom-scrapings to wet render separately with my used cooking fats that also have more gunk in them. That allows for faster and easier wet rendering of all the cleaner chunks together, to remove the last impurities and smell.
 
Yes I render on my back porch so I can open up the door, tallow is the #1 ingredient for the recipe I use from reformation acres❤

I like to do as much as possible at one time, because it's a messy job. Cleaning up once after 10lbs is much better than cleaning up 10x after 1lb batches! Also, it will render faster and more cleanly if you can run it all through a meat grinder first.

I start with dry rendering in my large electric turkey roaster pan out on the back patio. I strain off all the rendered fat into some smaller containers, preferably bowls that will easily release the chunk of tallow without having to dig into it. I let it all cool down to room temp, and then put it in the fridge.

After it has solidified, I take the chunk from the bowl, turn it over, and scrape off the bottom where the gunk has settled. I save all the bottom-scrapings to wet render separately with my used cooking fats that also have more gunk in them. That allows for faster and easier wet rendering of all the cleaner chunks together, to remove the last impurities and smell.
This is what I do too but I add salt in the 2nd render to help pull impurities
 
I did not have a chance to get my suet ground. The last batch I rendered, 6 pounds, I cut into 2 inch cubes (many larger) and tossed them into a soup kettle with water and salt. I brought it to a simmer and cooked until the cubes were translucent. I then stick blended into a uniform liquid. I was surprised by how easily the tallow liquified. That may have been because I was using suet, the beautiful leaf fat from around the kidneys without much of anything in the way of meat trimmings.

Because we now have cool evenings, I stuck the pot outside to cool down and solidify for the morning. The next day I did the same removing the tallow and scraping the bottom as @Mary M. and @AliOop. Like them, I repeated the salted water simmer to purify the tallow, chilled overnight, and scraped it a again. Then I melted it one more time and stored it in containers. I left the very bottom of the tallow in the pot because it always has a tiny amount of water left in it. I’m very careful to make sure no water ends up in the final tallow or containers to turn rancid or mess with accurate tallow weights.

I put the last bit of tallow together with the earlier scrapings and anything else I may have saved from other cooking in my refrigerator to salt out for one last batch of soaping fat. I would hate for any of it to go to waste, despite encouragement from my 2 Brittanys to let them eat it ALL. Well, okay, they did get the final scrapings as a “gravy” treat on their kibble. Maybe that’s why they keep me company in the kitchen when I render tallow?
 
Quick pic! Soap for the lavender lovers in my life. BB’s Peaceful Lavender behaved super well for layering. The extra mixing to incorporate micas that weren’t premixed took the top layer a little too far for the swirly look I was going for, but it’s close enough!

F3E21D2A-422C-4D27-992C-7ED60601674A.jpeg
 
Quick pic! Soap for the lavender lovers in my life. BB’s Peaceful Lavender behaved super well for layering. The extra mixing to incorporate micas that weren’t premixed took the top layer a little too far for the swirly look I was going for, but it’s close enough!

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Beautiful soap, Mobjack Bay! What micas did you use?
 
I use tallow in all my soaps, except salt soap, and in all my line of skin care products. It’s my favorite! I’ve been using it on my own skin for several years. Fortunately I’ve had access to purchase really nice clean quality tallow. But, recently rendered some from a deer I got this spring. I can’t wait to make soap with it! But, now I’ve got several sources offering me suet and beef trim, and I want to utilize it. So, we’ll see if I really have the energy to deal with it. I’ve got a giant electric roaster that I think I’ll try outside. When I’ve done smaller amounts I’ve used my crock pot inside with salt water, and then stick blended it. Love seeing so many tallow fans!!!
This was the fat cap left after I made a giant batch of bone broth.
 

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I use tallow in all my soaps, except salt soap, and in all my line of skin care products. It’s my favorite! I’ve been using it on my own skin for several years. Fortunately I’ve had access to purchase really nice clean quality tallow. But, recently rendered some from a deer I got this spring. I can’t wait to make soap with it! But, now I’ve got several sources offering me suet and beef trim, and I want to utilize it. So, we’ll see if I really have the energy to deal with it. I’ve got a giant electric roaster that I think I’ll try outside. When I’ve done smaller amounts I’ve used my crock pot inside with salt water, and then stick blended it. Love seeing so many tallow fans!!!
This was the fat cap left after I made a giant batch of bone broth.
I can’t get the video to play. 😢
 
Quick pic! Soap for the lavender lovers in my life. BB’s Peaceful Lavender behaved super well for layering. The extra mixing to incorporate micas that weren’t premixed took the top layer a little too far for the swirly look I was going for, but it’s close enough!

View attachment 62368
Beautiful!

I’m pretty happy! My hot chocolate and hot chocolate mint soap with my first soap dough marshmallows. They smell really good! I used a blend of essential oil peppermint and hot cocoa FO from WSP.
 

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I'll be making four batches of soap this weekend. I hadn't planned on making anymore before Christmas but this is a special order. It's a collaboration with a local winery; they want to sell them in their gift shop/tasting room. I'll be making a red wine soap, a white wine soap, a rose soap, and a cider soap. They chose the fragrances and provided the wines and cider. If they sell as well as anticipated, this could become a regular thing.

Four Soaps.png
 
I'll be making four batches of soap this weekend. I hadn't planned on making anymore before Christmas but this is a special order. It's a collaboration with a local winery; they want to sell them in their gift shop/tasting room. I'll be making a red wine soap, a white wine soap, a rose soap, and a cider soap. They chose the fragrances and provided the wines and cider. If they sell as well as anticipated, this could become a regular thing.

View attachment 62381
That’s fabulous. Do you like their wine?
 
Not soap yet, but I am trying out some glacial mud powder I got via @dibbles from her friend's de-stash. It is a very fine powder about the color of slate. I'll be adding some to soap in the near future, but I want to make some facial masks as well. I posted about that here.

One of the things I thought might be fun to do with the glacial mud powder is to mix it with some colorants in hopes it will only subdue and not overpower if I only add a little of the glacial clay. I just hope it's not too scratchy in the end product. Anyway, since I prefer to do my color-mixing for swirls while the batter is very fluid, I doubt the the powder would remain in suspension if I added it to the main batter before separating it out for the colorants. I could be wrong, of course. Perhaps I'll try it both ways as a test, and see how it goes.
 
That’s fabulous. Do you like their wine?
It's kind of interesting.... the woman who I've been working with wanted me to come for a tasting, which I did happily. I wanted to get a feel for what they were expecting. The wines were nice and I really enjoyed the cider but, when I got home and we sampled them, they were just ok. Neither of us was ready to switch from our usual choices.

There are some really amazing wines coming out of the Okanagan Valley, where we live, some that are award winning on the world stage (Mission Hill Winery produced the first Canadian $100 bottle of wine, Vibrant Vines won a Gold Medal in Switzerland a couple years ago, just to name a couple of them). The wines that this particular winery produces are decent wines, just not my first choice. That's ok, though... they're giving me free wine to make soap for them? I'm in!
 
Not soap yet, but I am trying out some glacial mud powder I got via @dibbles from her friend's de-stash. It is a very fine powder about the color of slate. I'll be adding some to soap in the near future, but I want to make some facial masks as well. I posted about that here.

One of the things I thought might be fun to do with the glacial mud powder is to mix it with some colorants in hopes it will only subdue and not overpower if I only add a little of the glacial clay. I just hope it's not too scratchy in the end product. Anyway, since I prefer to do my color-mixing for swirls while the batter is very fluid, I doubt the the powder would remain in suspension if I added it to the main batter before separating it out for the colorants. I could be wrong, of course. Perhaps I'll try it both ways as a test, and see how it goes.
Do you disperse your colorants before adding them to your batter? I use it as a stand alone natural colorant and disperse it in some of the batch water, but I think added to micas or oxides in oil would work as well. I have not had it separate out in any way.
 
After having three different batches of soap go through ricing- which is small globules become soap suspended in oil, i finally solved my problem. The wine soap and charcoal soap ended up completely solidifying over time. The Shea lard soap would’ve as well
I realize- your oils cannot be too hot, allow them to cool to room temperature
Be careful when adding cold ingredients like wine- allow that to come to room temperature
I followed my rules and soap turned out perfect next day
I made a completely new batch of same soap
 

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