Most people trying to homestead know how important it is to waste as little as possible. But one thing many people don’t know what to do with is waste fat from the kitchen or from processing animals. Did you know that instead of throwing away all that fat, you can easily turn it into a simple homemade soap for your family to use? Today we are going to teach you how to turn that waste fat into something useful.
The first step is to render and strain the fat. If you are using raw fat from processed animals, you will need to render and skim the fat. These processes are described below. If you are using fat you drained off of something like hamburger, you can skip the rendering process and just heat and strain the fat well to remove any impurities and food particles. Then, let it harden. We store ours in the freezer until we have accumulated a sufficient quantity to make a batch of soap.
If you are using fat from animals you processed, it needs to be rendered
To render raw fat, you simply need to chop it up into small pieces and then heat it slowly in a crock pot or on the stove over low heat. Allow it to simmer on low heat for several hours. Over the course of time, the fat will melt, any moisture will boil off, and all of the ‘impurities’ in it will separate out. You will eventually get crispy bits of stuff starting to float on the surface.
When ready, strain the fat to remove any impurities
At this time you can strain the fat through a fine mesh to remove any debris. This process is the same for raw and reserved fat. Both will need to have all the impurities removed to make the fat clean/pure and ready to turn into soap. Allow the fat to cool, and you will be left with a block of pure tallow ready for soapmaking. You do not have to allow it to cool if you are ready to make soap when you finish straining it.
To make soap you only need 3 basic ingredients and a few tools.
You need your rendered fat, water, and lye. Lye can be purchased from various soapmaking supply places. You also need a stainless steel bowl, stainless or silicone spoon, a way to accurately weigh ingredients. Plus you need a pot or crock pot to melt your fat in and a soap mold, which can be as simple as various plastic containers. Some people use cleaned out Pringles cans. A stick blender comes in handy, but is not essential. Lastly, for your protection use gloves and eye protection when handling the lye. Lye is caustic and can burn your eyes or skin.
Before you get started making soap, you need to get a soap recipe from a lye calculator. There are several of them available for free online. Weigh out the volume of rendered fat you ended up with and input both the quantity and type of fat you are using into the lye calculator. The calculators will tell you the amount of water and lye you need to successfully make a batch of soap. Once you have done that you can proceed to making soap.
There are two ways to make soap. Cold process and hot process. Today we are going to be demonstrating how to make hot process soap, because we prefer to make hot process soap. Plus there are a lot more cold process soap tutorials on the internet. However, we’d like to note that cold process soap can be made using exactly the same recipes as hot process. You simply omit the cooking steps. Both soapmaking processes have their pros and cons. The nice thing about hot process soap is that once the cook is finished you have usable soap. There is no required waiting time for it to be safe to use.
Let’s get on to actually making soap!
The first step is to measure out your soap making ingredients according to your recipe. To make hot process soap you want to use water on the higher end of the range the recipe suggests. Start by weighing out your fat and putting it in the crock pot on low so that it can start melting.
While the fat is melting, put on your gloves and eye protection and measure out lye into your stainless steel bowl. Carefully add the water to the lye and stir it gently to dissolve the lye. This needs to be done carefully to avoid splashing. It should also be done in a well ventilated area to avoid the fumes released by the reaction. When the lye is mixed with the water, it will get very hot. Be careful not to burn yourself. Allow the lye water mixture to cool while your fat melts.
Once your fat is melted, carefully combine the lye mixture with the fat in the crock pot. Avoid splashing the mixture on yourself. At this point you need to stir the mixture to combine the ingredients. Use your immersion blender if you have one. If you don’t, stir the pot with a spoon. You need to stir it until the oil and water mixture have been combine into a uniform mixture.
There is a lot of discussion about something called ‘trace’ in the soapmaking community.
This is basically when your mixture has been stirred enough that it starts to thicken. This is the point at which cold process soap is ready to be poured into molds. We have found that for making hot process soap from tallow, trace per se is not what is important. Fully blending the mixture until it has emulsified is the key. Tallow comes to trace extremely slowly, even with an immersion blender, so don’t obsess over trace for our hot process soap. Just make sure your fat and lye are very thoroughly mixed.
Once your mixture is emulsified (and you can tell its there, because the mixture will be a uniform creamy color), put the lid on the pot and start to cook your soap on low. This process will take between 30 and 60 minutes.
Do not leave your soap unattended while it is cooking!
It can create a dangerous soap volcano of caustic half cooked soap if left unattended.
As your soap is cooking, you will see that it starts to bubble up around the edges. You also may see some of the fat start to separate out. When this happens you can thoroughly stir the soap and then allow it to keep cooking. Stirring it a couple times will redistribute the heat and speed up the cooking process and allow the soap to cook more uniformly.
Your soap is done cooking when it has thickened and has a glossy texture.
The soap will also harden on your spoon almost immediately when it cools. Pay attention to how it behaves on the spoon when you stir it mid-cook, and you will notice an obvious change at the end of the cook. The hardened soap on your spoon at the end of the cook will no longer feel greasy and will rinse off your fingers easily. You can also test the soap with pH strips or let it sit for a couple weeks before use if you are worried about it not being fully cured and safe.
Once the soap has cooked, stir it thoroughly and quickly transfer it to your molds. Prior to pouring into the molds would also be the time to add in any fragrances or essential oils you wished to add. You will need to work quickly here. As soon as the soap starts to cool it will harden. Your soap can be unmolded and cut (if necessary) within a few hours when it has cooled completely. It is now ready to use. However, it will continue to lose some moisture and get harder and more durable if allowed to cure for several weeks before use.
We hope this inspires you to turn that waste fat into something useful. Enjoy your homemade soap!
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