PURE TALLOW SOAP MAKING AND RECIPE
Soap making, it’s something I haven’t done in years but after taking inventory of what we have left in the freezer before butcher time I noticed I had several pounds of tallow that needed to be used up.
By now I’ve normally turned it all into face and body lotion (I can share that recipe in the future if you’d like). So the last cow either had more fat or I didn’t hand out as many jars of lotion to friends and family like I normally do.
Anyway our next cow will be ready in the next two weeks so I finally took a break from canning one evening and decided to make a very simple tallow soap recipe. My favorite bar soap is Dr. Squatch but at $7 per bar it seems a little pricey. I decided to try and mimic the sent of the bar I like “Wood Barrel Bourbon” and make my own or something close. I know it’s considered a more manly scent but it’s what I like.
This is how I get our tallow. I have the butcher run it through the #2 grind, just like they do hamburger, and then package it in one pound packages. I do have to render the tallow before I use it but that’s a very simple process.
HOW TO RENDER TALLOW: Add the tallow to a saucepan, heat over medium until it’s completely melted. Any meat particles will cook and float to the surface. Strain through cheesecloth and discard the meat bits, or in my case I feed them to the chickens or you can even let them get crispy and eat them yourself. The clear melted tallow is what you will use to make soap or lotion.
I also keep a pint size jar of tallow on my stove to fry food in.
TALLOW SOAP RECIPE:
- 32 oz Melted Tallow
- 13 oz Water
- 4.2 oz Lye
- 1-1.5 oz essential oil (optional)
- Weigh out melted tallow it needs to be 100 degrees for soap making, if it’s hotter just let it set until it’s cooled down to 100. (keep this in a glass container or stainless steel)
- Weigh water in a separate glass or stainless steel container
- Weigh lye in a separate glass or stainless steel container
- Once your tallow is at 100 degrees, add the lye to the water slowly and stir slowly. Let sit until it’s no longer cloudy and then set a timer for 10 minutes.
- Once the 10 minutes is up slowly add the water and lye mixture to the tallow and stir with a stick blender, once it starts to “trace” add the essential oil and stir to incorporate.
- Pour into a 42 oz. soap mold and cover with wax paper, and and a heavy towel.
- Let cure for 24 hours, remove from mold, and cut into bars. This recipe makes 8 chunky bars.
- Place bars on a cooling rack where there’s air flow and let them cure for 6-8 weeks before use.
These are very basic directions and given with the assumption you know soap making terminology. It’s a very easy recipe and very forgiving. If you’re measurements aren’t exactly spot on it will turn out.
The essential oils I used to achieve the scent I wanted: 1/2 oz Sandalwood, 3/4 oz Patchouli, 20 drops Clove. This was just a guess at the scent by what’s listed on the box of the brand I like. For me it’s close enough and way cheaper.
I’ll probably make another couple of batches just to keep the curing process in a rotation so a good number of bars are always ready for use. I just love the feel of tallow soap and lotion and also the minimal ingredients I’m putting on my skin.
If you’re every interested in making your own soap this is a very easy recipe to start with as long as you have access to tallow. I’m assuming you can get it from any local butcher shop or local farmer. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!
This is a very interesting post Dawn! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Jeanie 🙂