# Trying Lard on soap. Starting from scratch



## ngian (Mar 13, 2015)

After Susie's prompt for trying a recipe with lard, I started looking for butchers that can give me some. I found out that my local butcher can give me and he already did, but it is only back-fat. 

I also called another butcher boutique that has its own Certified Organic Farm, and they might be able to give me leaf lard to render. I will know this the next days.

So I will show here my ever first attempt to make Susie's recipe, starting from the rendering of lard. 

Firstly I cut any meat and skin that is left on the fat so as to have pure fat, and afterwards I start cutting in small pieces and then putting it in the fridge: 






















This pure fat was a total of 750gr and hoping that when I melt it (in the following messages) I will have at least ~350gr so I as I can cook one normal (~8 soap bars) batch of soap (I do CPOP, but I like saying "cook" as I'm influenced by Breaking Bad ! ).

I'm thinking of having this thread to show all the way from scratch to make a soap bar with lard, so as anyone can ask or give feedback in every step until the final product.

In this thread I will also show my attempt with leaf fat (or suet fat, or as we locally call it royal fat), if I have the luck to obtain some.

Nikos


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Mar 13, 2015)

If you can get hold of a mincing machine, it will make it a whole lot better - with me, it took ages for the chunks to melt 

Looks like lovely fat, though


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## ngian (Mar 13, 2015)

Well in order to have this fat of 750gr in little pieces, it took me a little over an hour, without being in a hurry...

So for sure a mincing machine will do the job quicker as my butcher didn't want to have his machine stuck with this fat when I asked him if he could cut it through it. 

I think that I will love my lard soap in the end even if I make a not so good one, after having spend so much time for it. To be honest I already feel that I like it! :smile:


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## regansoap (Mar 13, 2015)

Hi I just made my first lard soap it's really hard bar and really white - it's not brilliant but I put lavender in it and it does look quite pretty.
I made the mistake of spraying the mould and it put a yellow/brown marks on it which was a shame but hey Ho - I'm sure Jesse didn't get his first cook right with chilli P.
I would love to see some pictures of the finished soap.


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## ngian (Mar 18, 2015)

So after a few days I managed to render the pig's fatback. This is my first ever render of lard and I did follow advices gathered from the internet (forums - youtube).

I poured some water in a saucepan along with the fat and set the fire to very low.






As you can see the temperature went up to around 100ºC (210ºF) although the hot plate was set to the lowest temperature. I was steering every 10-20 minutes for about 2 hours and I thought it was time to change the saucepan as I saw that they were some fat stuck on the bottom of the pan, and I was afraid of odorizing the final lard with pig smell.I used a coffee filter for straining the liquid. At that point there was no pig smell at the lard.






I continued the render with adding a bit of water again in a new pan and steering every now and then for another 1 hour till the fat got a yellowish color. I then strained it again firstly with a kitchen paper and then with a coffee filter. This time the pig smell was a bit more intense, so I stopped the whole process.






I managed to create ~400gr of lard while with Susie's recipe I need around 330gr for a 600gr batch of total oils (around 8 bar soaps). 

My concern now is about the tiny pig smell that the lard has. For my nose it's acceptable, but for my wife who doesn't like it at all, she thinks that it is very intense. I have also read from many people that this odor isn't available at the soap after saponification, but others say that it still remains.

I'm also thinking of going through the cleaning it with baking soda so as to see if I can remove more this smell.

I also *came across this interesting article that explains* how baking soda is able to deodorize and also the same can happen with NaOH.



> Given this explanation, I think [FONT=MathJax_Main]NaOH[/FONT]  should obviously also work well for deodorizing in case the smell is  caused by acids. The problem would be that smells caused by basic  compounds are left untouched.


Maybe DeeAnna can enlighten us more on this matter.

I also noticed that after leaving lard outside the house with a kitchen paper on top, the next day the piggy smell was even a little less intense.






The good news is that I also obtained ~1kg of leaf lard from the Organic Farm, and I will do once again the procedure so as to see if I can produce an odorless lard.

Nikos


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## Obsidian (Mar 18, 2015)

I don't know how home rendered lard smells compared to store bought but I can smell piggy in the lard I buy. If I use a lot of lard and leave it unscented, I can still smelly piggy. I can't stand it and it doesn't fade, at least not to my nose. The scent does cover easily with FO though, even my 80% lard soaps don't smelly piggy if scented.


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## Susie (Mar 18, 2015)

I have a really sensitive nose, also.  I can smell lard in any soap that is unscented.  However, it does not take much EO or FO to cover that up.  Really.  I would never be able to tolerate it if it did not.  

That is beautiful lard, though. You did a great job rendering!


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## dixiedragon (Mar 18, 2015)

Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't look like you used water? If not, melt the lard down with some water - probably about 1:1 ratio - strain it, then let it seperate. the fat will float to the top and the water and impurities will be on the bottom. after it seperates, put it in the fridge and you'll be able to lift out a nice, firm fat cake.


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## songwind (Mar 18, 2015)

I haven't rendered any lard myself, but the lard I get from Soaper's Choice makes for a lovely bath soap along with some olive and coconut.


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## ngian (Mar 19, 2015)

dixiedragon said:


> Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't look like you used water? If not, melt the lard down with some water - probably about 1:1 ratio - strain it, then let it seperate. the fat will float to the top and the water and impurities will be on the bottom. after it seperates, put it in the fridge and you'll be able to lift out a nice, firm fat cake.



As I stated in my previous message:



> I poured some water in a saucepan along with the fat and set the fire to very low.


I did use some water but not much. This small portion of water helps in melting the first fats without being burned and then by the time that the water will evaporate, the liquid fat will take water's place to melt the remaining unmelted fats.

Yesterday I decided to melt the lard that I had left outside the house, to see if the pig smell was indeed gone, and while the lard was in room temperature it didn't have any special odor. But by the time I melt it with bain marie, the pig smell just came back to its initial tenseness! 

So I decided to do the baking soda bath for 30 min in low temperature. I purred water at around 1:1 ratio, totally dissolved ~1 Tbsp baking soda to water prior warming the water and inserting lard, and by the time I inserted lard, million of bubbles started to appear! After 30 min of steering I put the saucepan outside the house, and after a few hours inside the fridge.






Tonight I will see how intense the smell is, after aborting the water underneath the lard disc.

As far as it concerns scents, I haven't tried at all FO or EO, as I need more time in reading the aroma side of CP soap...

Nikos


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## ngian (Mar 20, 2015)

So after a day in the fridge, I cut the lard disk (it is not very hard, not just like coconut oil but more like a soft butter) and cleaned the bottom of the disk with a knife, that had a bit creamier surface along with some crystals that were maybe caused by baking soda (or it was baking soda).

I then melt it in bain marie and strained it so as to clean it of those crystals.






Generally I have noted that when lard is at room temperature it doesn't smell much and when it is warm the pig smell just arises. 

Now, after one clean with baking soda, in room temperature I hardly smell any piggy odor, at a point that I won't understand that there is something under my nose. When I warm it up then little piggy odor is there. For sure the piggy smell has dropped its intense. I also lost around 30gr of lard reaching around 370gr still enough for my recipe that needs 330gr. (The other 40gr will try them in making omelette to see its flavor...)

My recipe will be Castor 5%, OO 15%, PKO 25% (as I'm out of CO), Lard 55%. I changed a bit Susie's recipe because I wanted to tweak the final properties of the soap by Soapcalc's reference. Additives will be salt, sugar, oatmeal flour, sodium citrate, silk fibers.

So I'm ready to make my first lard soap this weekend!

Nikos


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## Susie (Mar 20, 2015)

If you are increasing the PKO for hardness, you need not worry.  Lard makes good hard soap.  If you are increasing it for "cleansing", you can clean fine with 0 cleansing.  I am worried that it might be a bit more drying with that much PKO.


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## reinbeau (Mar 20, 2015)

I never use water when rendering lard or tallow, I dry render in a cast iron enameled pot over low heat and pour through two grades of cheesecloth.  As for the 'piggy' smell, make certain your lard doesn't get too hot as it's rendered.  I have never had a piggy smell come through in any of my soaps, and I use lard a lot.  Also best to grind it thoroughly as mentioned, you can usually find a good hand driven meat grinder from second hand stores at a minimum, I bought an inexpensive dedicated electric grinder for my rendering needs.


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## ngian (Mar 20, 2015)

Susie said:


> If you are increasing the PKO for hardness, you need not worry.  Lard makes good hard soap.  If you are increasing it for "cleansing", you can clean fine with 0 cleansing.  I am worried that it might be a bit more drying with that much PKO.



Well as I have already tested my previous soaps that have 30% CO (and one with 15% CO and 15% PKO) and I don't feel my skin dry. The tiny dry feeling that I experience may arise from my hard water, because I have also tried my Castile soap (100% OO) with almost the same feeling. So for some reason I don't feel the need to use 20% of those oils, but for sure I will try it someday. 



reinbeau said:


> Also best  to grind it thoroughly as mentioned, you can usually find a good hand  driven meat grinder from second hand stores at a minimum, I bought an  inexpensive dedicated electric grinder for my rendering needs.



I have also read another trick that you can freeze the unmelted lard and you can cut it through a blender easily in very small pieces. I will for sure try this with my leaf lard that I have.

Nikos


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## Dahila (Mar 20, 2015)

Fantastic, you are going to love lard soap , dreamy,creamy lather)


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## DeeAnna (Mar 22, 2015)

Don't freeze it hard or you will burn out your grinder motor (or arm)! Just freeze to firmness.


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## ngian (Mar 23, 2015)

So Saturday night was the lard-soapmaking time. And for the fact that I did use some lard in order to cook an omelette the previous days along with the fact that I might have not mesured properly the total weight of my available lard, all that I had was 315gr instead of 330gr that the recipe needed! And I did realize this by the time I was mixing all my oils in the plastic container. 

So I had to open the soapcalc.net, while the other oils where melting, to recalculate the recipe adding more OO along with altering NaOH amount with 0.1gr less! :shifty:  :

Lard 52.5%, PKO 25%, OO 17,5%, Castor 5%, SF 5%

By the time PKO was almost melted, I couldn't smell any piggy odor even though oils were warm (~45ºC) as the other oils apart from lard were contributing to the final odor! So I realized that if lard has from little to no piggy smell at room temperature (solid) then it is safe for my nose to make an un-piggysmell soap bar without the use of any FO or EO. By the time I inserted the 3% oatmeal flour in the oils, then a mildy smell of oatmeal was added to the final scent.

But I decided to make two versions splitting the batch in two, one unscent and one with 0.1% levander EO (L).






At this batch I did use for the first time a stainless steel container for mixing my 50% LYE solution and the rest of the warm water (33% LYE Concentration) that salt 2%, Sugar 2% and Sodium Citrate 3% were diluted. 
The time that was needed for the LYE to cool down was very quick! It took around 15 min to reach ~28ºC from ~55ºC, in contrast with a plastic container that was needed almost twice this time. And I only did use cold taped water without any ice cubs as I did use for the plastic container. 
It is for the stainless steel that helps temperature to be transferred more easily. I' ve read this tip at Anne Watson's book (smart soapmaking - costs 0.01E at google books!)

I CPOP it for 30 min @ 60ºC and when it fully gelled I closed the oven, and I left it outside the house for ~8 hour when it was hard enough to cut it.







So I have 4 bars with Lavender EO (wavy cut) and 4 bars unscented (straight cut). My wife's nose assured me that the soap without the EO does not smell piggy at all, and it reminds her of soaps that her father was using many years ago.







So I have to wait for 3 and more weeks to try it! Next will be with leaf lard, and maybe play a little with other liquids instead of water.

Have you ever tried Susie's Lard recipe with Aloe Vera, beer or milk? Or Lard is better with using only water as the liquid?

Nikos


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Mar 23, 2015)

Lard is pretty awesome however it is used - that includes soap and non-soap uses


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## Susie (Mar 23, 2015)

I have used it with: cow's milk, cow's heavy cream, goat's milk, coconut milk.  

I find that the milks make no appreciable difference to anyone in my family, so I stopped bothering.  Other people have different results, and LOVE their milk soaps.  So try it and make up your own mind.  That is the great thing about making your own soap...it is YOUR own soap.


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## Seawolfe (Mar 23, 2015)

What great soaps! You are going to love them 

Ive made lard soap with beer as the liquid. Let the beer go flat, and for the amount of liquid needed (full water recipe), half was frozen beer mixed with the lye and half was a cooked down beer syrup added after trace. It was a really hoppy beer, and the soap retained the fragrance.


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## ngian (Mar 30, 2015)

Well I have written here before that here in Greece we call leaf lard as royal fat. After rendering it I just understood the reason why. From now on, I will never again try the back fat. 
This time I rendered it* the way I mentioned at this post*, and I also thought of adding a cheesecloth. My idea was that I didn't want to burn the fat neither inside its liquids, nor on the hot stainless steel surface of the strainer.

Firstly I cleaned leaf lard manually again (I didn't use any blender) as the pure fat was inside some membranes from which I pulled out the solid and somehow "dry" fat. When I cut it, it easily breaks up in smaller pieces, and there is no piggy smell at all. Just pure odorless fat. I could easily try to eat some if I could. Great quality compared to backfat.







I had around 670gr of pure leaf lard to render. So I tied a cheesecloth onto the strainer, so the fat would always sit on fabric on high temperatures.






I then put it in the oven at 100ºC, and was watching it how it would go for the first 30 minutes. This temperatures seemed to me to be too low to melt the fat quickly so I turn the oven up to 120ºC and just left it there alone, and went to watch a movie. (*The Imitation Game* - very nice movie by the way).






When I came back most of the fat had melt, so a took the pan to strain the initial liquid fat through coffee filter and put a second pan to strain the remaining fat. And for the fact that the liquid was not getting through the coffee filter quickly I put it in the oven so as to always keep it in liquid form.

I then squeezed the leftovers with a potato masher to get every little drop of this liquid gold. I also grabbed the cheesecloth and strained it with my hand to get the last drop out of it.






So I finally got around 470gr of leaf lard, which is more rock solid than the fatback at room temperature. It's like coconut oil and of course odorless. I gave it to some friends to smell it in order to recognize this food. They didn't realize what it was, and they said that it should be some kind of cream. 

So now I will focus on the recipe, and while I had drunk a Weiss beer with the movie, I had also kept a spare bottle for the next lard soap. I have let some beer liquid sit in open air for 1-2 days with a portion of sugar in it and some liquid for boiling it to make the beer syrop as Seawolfe advised.

It will be a Lard 75%, PKO 20% and Castor 5%.

Thanks to everyone for every advise and information that have given.

ps.
I haven't yet tried the lard soap bars, but I think I like them already. I somehow have got this feeling from your posts.

Nikos


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## Seawolfe (Mar 30, 2015)

This has turned out to be an awesome tutorial on lard!

Nikos, why are you adding sugar to the beer? Beer already has quite a bit of "sugar" in it. I fear you will make a lye volcano - which is why I freeze my flat beer into slush and cubes before adding the lye (and add the syrup later after trace).


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## Dahila (Mar 30, 2015)

I put my ground fat into the dutch oven and set the temps on very low , so it simmers.   Mix from time to time with a wooden spoon.  I do it for like 35 years and it is the easiest.  I do not use water or any complicated methods.  When the lard is done I let is sit on counter for an hour or so and gently pour through sheave.  You guys do a good job but it is unnecessary complicated.


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## ngian (Mar 31, 2015)

Seawolfe said:


> Nikos, why are you adding sugar to the beer? Beer already has quite a bit of "sugar" in it. I fear you will make a lye volcano - which is why I freeze my flat beer into slush and cubes before adding the lye (and add the syrup later after trace).



Seawolf, I'm adding sugar with the logic I have to add all the base additives in all my soaps so far (oatmeal flour, sugar 3%, salt 3%)

I have once *made a beer soap before* and it was made with beer that had also honey, but I had also added sugar 1%. 

Current beer seems to have little to no sweeteners as it is described as bitter taste beer, so I have already diluted 3% sugar in it. Beer syrop is only for fragrance purpose? 

As far as it concerns lye volcano, I haven't seen any and maybe it is for the fact that I mostly *use 50% Lye Solution* when mixing with the recipe's liquids, and NaOH has somehow lost its "thermal power". When I mix it with the rest of liquids, I always get max 60ºC which is easily dropped @ ~28ºC with the help of a stainless steel container and only cold tapped water.

I'm also thinking of using FO of "Green Apple" and I hope that I won't have any more than beer's speedy tracing issues so as to be able to to mold it on time. Should I refrigerate FO so as to add it in low temperature? What should I be aware of, so as not to through my whole batch in the bin? 

Nikos


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Mar 31, 2015)

I wouldn't worry about cooling the FO - if it is a trouble maker, the heat of it won't make a big difference.

As for the beer, the sugars are in the alcohol - while some is burnt off when you reduce it not of all of it is.  Unless you're using an alcohol free, sugar free beer then I think the added sugar is not needed.  That is more what the beer adds, rather than being used mainly for the scent, as there are certain types of beer where the scent doesn't survive, but the resulting bubblage certainly does.


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## DeeAnna (Mar 31, 2015)

"...As far as it concerns lye volcano, I haven't seen any and maybe it is for the fact that I mostly use 50% Lye Solution when mixing with the recipe's liquids, and NaOH has somehow lost its "thermal power"...."

I would say the truth of the matter is that you have simply been fortunate enough to not have a soap volcano. And may you never have the bad luck to have one! 

Chemicals that are more concentrated (your 50% lye solution) are more likely to react faster than less concentrated reactants -- I am quite certain there is no loss of "thermal power" in the 50% lye. Fats such as lard, tallow, olive, etc. are slower reacting and will do pretty well with 50% lye. If you make a soap high in coconut oil and use the 50% lye, you might see a different result. 

For example, I made a 70% CO soap this weekend and it gelled quickly with an unusual amount of expansion and heating. A different recipe made the same day with only 20% CO went through its full gel in a polite, gentle way, even though I used the same method of making the soap.


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## ngian (Apr 6, 2015)

So last Friday night was the time to make my last soap before Easter. I had used different molds this time. One was the all time classic pringles box and the other was a plastic mold game for the sand of my son's games. I did this especially for my kids to play and clean themselves at their bath time.






The final recipe was:

Lye Concentration: 28%
SF: 5%
Oils: 600gr
       ---Lard: 450gr (75%)
       ---PKO: 120gr (20%)
       ---Castor: 30gr (5%)

NaOH: 84,09gr (168gr - 50% LYE Solution)
Beer: 86,7gr + Beer Syrup: 45gr (I didn't add the syrup at trace b/c i was afraid of the acceleration)

Oatmeal flour: 18gr @ oils
Salt: 6gr @ beer
Sugar: 12gr @ beer
Sodium Citrate: 18gr @ beer
Silk: @ LYE
Green Apple FO @ light trace: ~5ml (Acceleration!)

CPOP: 30min @ 60ºC

When I bought the Green Apple FO I asked the store if it would create any problems  with my CP soap, and he told me that he hasn't heard anything for this. I  didn't ask him to give me the MSDS and I just risked my recipe. So at  light trace I added a little less than 1% of this FO and after a few hand  stirring and little SBlends I saw the soap getting thick quite fast...  So I immediately poured the soap to the molds and you can see the air  bubbles that were created by this in both soaps.






And after 8 hours I unmold/cut the soap and just set them to cure. By the end of the month I will also test this version to see what 75% leaf lard means for me too.






Happy Easter to everyone.

Nikos


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## Seawolfe (Apr 6, 2015)

The soap collection grows! that was a clever idea using the toy for a mold


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## not_ally (Apr 6, 2015)

Your soaps look really good!  And I envy your organizational/notekeeping skills, those cards are awesome.  Also envy you being able to get leaf lard, no way for me to do that here unless I was willing to spend an arm and a leg.


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## cmzaha (Apr 6, 2015)

not_ally said:


> Your soaps look really good! And I envy your organizational/notekeeping skills, those cards are awesome. Also envy you being able to get leaf lard, no way for me to do that here unless I was willing to spend an arm and a leg.


It is even hard to get beef fat here since most stores have a rendering company picking up all their fat. At my Stater Bros I can get them to give me 5 lbs of fat trimmings a couple times a month, but I found the beef tallow shortening does not have much difference in soap so I am not going to hassle rendering and trying to acquire enough for a large batch


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## not_ally (Apr 6, 2015)

"I found the beef tallow shortening does not have much difference in soap so I am not going to hassle rendering and trying to acquire enough for a large batch"

That's good to know, Carolyn.  I have wondered about the differences in store bought and rended tallow/lard, hard to get much info on that, it seems like most people either render or buy.  I know you have had problems w/DOS w/the S&F lard and am a bit worried b/c I love it in soap so far and we live pretty close by, so can't count on it being locality/humidity differences etc.


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## ngian (Apr 7, 2015)

Seawolfe said:


> The soap collection grows! that was a clever idea using the toy for a mold :smile:



Yes I have made so far around 7 batches (1 per week) and I can't wait to make even more with new ingredients/mixes. 







As for molds I'm planning on making custom silicone molds from object/toys after *reading this link*.



not_ally said:


> Your soaps look really good!  And I envy your organizational/notekeeping skills, those cards are awesome.  Also envy you being able to get leaf lard, no way for me to do that here unless I was willing to spend an arm and a leg.



Well for me it was also a bit difficult to find leaf lard as I had to ask many butchers, to finally find one that could give a small quantity. The *Athens Central Market* were someone can find many butcher-shops together, they don't give their "meat waste" to people, but they must give it to a company that processes such food to create animal foods.


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## ngian (Apr 9, 2015)

It is only 5 days since I made this soap and I just can't wait to test some small portion that it is for testing purposes. Fortunately I will be away for vacations so I will not see the curing rack everyday inside the house. I guess I can cope with it easier and let the bars cure alone.

Until then I'm posting another pic for me to see them in case I miss them :Kitten Love:


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## ngian (Jun 2, 2015)

Well yes, you were right, lard is just a one of a kind! 75% in a recipe produces rich, creamy, thick and generally great lather. 
It will be an oil that I will definitely use again in another recipe. 
Nikos


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## Susie (Jun 2, 2015)

Lard makes amazing soap, no doubt about it.  Welcome to the lardy side!


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## nebetmiw (Jun 3, 2015)

Good job. Welcome to the waste not want not side. We raise our own pigs. Nothing goes to waste here.


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## ngian (Jun 9, 2015)

I'm so happy that I want to share something with you! I finally found today here in Athens lard from a Romanian mini market. A white pork fat with a very slightly piggy odor only for 1€ / 250gr. I guess I will not bother again with rendering it from scratch. 

Already bought 500gr and thinking of a recipe like 50% Lard, 25% coconut /Palm Kernel, 20% Palm, 5% Castor. 

What a wonderful day.


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## not_ally (Jun 9, 2015)

Congratulations from another lard lover.  That is a great find for a soapmaker, I am happy for you!


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jun 9, 2015)

ngian said:


> I'm so happy that I want to share something with you! I finally found today here in Athens lard from a Romanian mini market. A white pork fat with a very slightly piggy odor only for 1€ / 250gr. I guess I will not bother again with rendering it from scratch.
> 
> Already bought 500gr and thinking of a recipe like 50% Lard, 25% coconut /Palm Kernel, 20% Palm, 5% Castor.
> 
> What a wonderful day.



Good find!  I would swap the palm for OO or somesuch, though - lard and palm are very similar.  Of course, a 70% lard recipe wouldn't be too bad, either.............


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## ngian (Jun 9, 2015)

Well TEG now that I found cheap lard I will try various combinations, I have already tried 75% Lard, 20 palm kernel , 5 Castor and I will start trying to break down each oil to similar ones... 

As also for example 30 lard, 20 Palm, 15 CO, 10 Palm Kernel, 10 OO, 10 sweet Almond, 5 Castor. I'm thinking of a big party that will have many various girls with their friends!


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## not_ally (Jun 9, 2015)

aha, the ulterior motive!  Lard as a way to meet meet and mingle, the uses never end


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## xoticsoaps (Jun 9, 2015)

Where did you buy your soap racks?



ngian said:


> Yes I have made so far around 7 batches (1 per week) and I can't wait to make even more with new ingredients/mixes.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jun 9, 2015)

Again I would suggest not mixing palm and lard but rather use oo in place of the palm


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## ngian (Jun 9, 2015)

xoticsoaps said:


> Where did you buy your soap racks?



They are custom made. I just bought barbecue racks and with some screw bolts I made these curing racks...




The Efficacious Gentleman said:


> Again I would suggest not mixing palm and lard but rather use oo in place of the palm



Will there be something very weird if I mix lard and palm together? OO will be used for sure when the total palm/lard will be 50%. I'm just breaking down the 70% lard to lard and palm... just for the sake of experimentation, as I have also done the same for some recipes at coconut and palm kernel.


This is the reason I'm happy today!


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## galaxyMLP (Jun 9, 2015)

ngian said:


> They are custom made. I just bought barbecue racks and with some screw bolts I made these curing racks...




That is such a good idea! I can get racks like that 2/$1 at the local dollar store. I never thought to stack them by using bolts and nuts/washers! I think that will be my weekend project.


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Jun 9, 2015)

By all means, have a play. But lard and Palm are regarded as being two very similar oils, with lard being the better of the two. Unlike co and pko where it is hard to say that one is better than the other, with Palm and lard there is a clear difference. 

Mixing Palm and lard will give you a better soap than using just Palm, but a worse soap than just lard.


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