# Playing around with lard



## Arthur Dent (Feb 15, 2015)

I'm pretty new at this, have been soaping a little over a year.  All the recent threads about lard soap got me interested in high lard soaps, so I scoured the archives for suitable recipes to try.  
I must give a big "Thank You" to everyone who posts recipes on here for us new folks to try out, it really is a big help.
(yes, I do run everything through SoapCalc)

So about a month ago I made a 2lb batch of this:  
(found in the archives, not my own creation)

Lard 75%
Olive oil 10%
Coconut oil 10%
Castor oil 5%

Superfat at 7% and water at 33% as I usually do.

After a month cure this is now pretty good.  Nice creamy lather and nice feel, but low on bubbles.  I will of course give it another couple of weeks to see how much difference that makes.

On the same day I also made a 2lb test batch of this: 
(found in the archives, not my own creation)

Lard 75%
Coconut oil 20%
Castor oil 5%

Superfat at 8% and water at 33% as usual.

I should have superfatted at 7% for a more honest comparison to the first batch.  My bad. 

After a month cure this is really good!  Nice creamy lather, and great bubbles.  This is my new favorite.
It's interesting how the extra 10% of coconut oil made such a big difference in the bubbles.  I assume that it was the extra coconut oil and not the exclusion of the olive oil that made the difference, yes?

So far I am making plain unscented and uncolored soaps, still getting the hang of things.


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## DeeAnna (Feb 15, 2015)

High lard soaps don't necessarily lather well at first, but they can be absolutely lovely after some time. The soap that taught me this lesson is one like your first recipe -- 10% CO and 90% lard. I remember about a year later when I was down to a bar or two from this batch, I debated tossing them out, since my recollection was they didn't lather well. I'm glad I tested them first, because the bars lathered freely with a nice mix of fluffy and dense bubbles. I also like that the bars are longlasting and hard -- great at the sink for handwashing (in a well drained soap dish). From my notes about this batch:

3/23/2013: Bar is hard, smooth, glossy, white (plain batter portions), slightly translucent. Handsome.
4/14/2013: Lather is 1 out of 3 (3=very good, 2= acceptable, 1=minimal). Creamy, minimal. Seems good in the shower.
5/3/2013: Lather is much better after 4 wk cure – it is now about a 2 out of 3. Nice, long lasting in the shower and for hand washing. Much happier with this soap now.
Late 2014: Lather is lovely!

Yes, I'd guess the extra lather in your second recipe was from the extra 10% CO, not that you removed the OO. You could have left the olive in and subbed 10% CO in place of lard ... probably would have lathered about the same.


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## Arthur Dent (Feb 15, 2015)

Thanks DeeAnna, I appreciate your comments.  The first batch I do have to "work at it" for a while to get the lather up.  I'm hoping that, as you say, with age it will get better.
The second batch lathers and bubbles well right away.  I'll be playing with these recipes as time goes on.  Lots of fun!


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## nebetmiw (Feb 17, 2015)

I personally am not a fan of olive oil. I prefer safflower or almond. I used to make 3 oil soap but have a 4 oil I prefer now. Since you want bubbles lower the lard by 5 and up the castor by 5. That will help you out.


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## Susie (Feb 17, 2015)

Don't forget that you can add some sugar to boost the bubbles.  Just watch it for potential overheating.  And welcome to the lard club!


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## Arthur Dent (Feb 17, 2015)

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.  I have been using lard all along, just not in these high percentages,  I have to say that I like it.  And this is farm country, we put lard in everything anyway. 
I have thought about a little sugar, haven't gotten that brave yet.


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## dixiedragon (Feb 17, 2015)

My only complaint about lard is that the soap batter doesn't smell as good as an all-veggie batter. It doesn't affect the final product, especially if you are adding scent, but I LOVE that smell when you mix the lye and the oils and it's faintly sweet and creamy.


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## Arthur Dent (Feb 17, 2015)

I like what the extra coconut oil brings to the party, but really anything over 10% makes me itchy after a while.  It's ok as a hand soap, but for a shower bar I have to keep it low.


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## lenarenee (Feb 20, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> High lard soaps don't necessarily lather well at first, but they can be absolutely lovely after some time. The soap that taught me this lesson is one like your first recipe -- 10% CO and 90% lard. I remember about a year later when I was down to a bar or two from this batch, I debated tossing them out, since my recollection was they didn't lather well. I'm glad I tested them first, because the bars lathered freely with a nice mix of fluffy and dense bubbles. I also like that the bars are longlasting and hard -- great at the sink for handwashing (in a well drained soap dish). From my notes about this batch:
> 
> That's odd. I fell in love with a high lard soap because at 2 weeks of age it lathered up quickly with a nice mix of large and creamy bubbles. (15% coconut, 5 castor, 10 ho safflower, 70 lard).  The majority of my soap recipes are 15% coconut - not a big bubbler, but the high lard recipe compared with my old standard of palm/olive/co was lathering better at 2 weeks than the standard recipe at 3 months!  Plus, I found the lard soap was gentler/less drying than the standard. I start using the lard soap at 3 weeks.
> 
> Could that be because we have a water softener?


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## DeeAnna (Feb 20, 2015)

Well I have softened water too. Probably the biggest thing is the extra five percent CO and the castor in your recipe. That will make a significant difference in the lather ... it's really apples and oranges comparison to 90% lard and 10% CO.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk HD


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## lenarenee (Feb 20, 2015)

Except I left out one important fact; your 90/10 got better with cure.  My 
recipe's lather doesn't, but mildness improved. In fact, I have one bar of soap I've been using off and on for 2 months, and I think the lather is deteriorating....thinner and less stable. Curious.


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## Arthur Dent (Jul 9, 2015)

So now these soaps are about 6 months old (see first post this thread for recipes).  Oh my, they are both really good!  Both produce great lather, of course the one with the higher %CO still makes better bubbles, but the other one is a little richer in lather.  I think I actually prefer the lower %CO one from the lather standpoint, and I think they are prettier bars overall.  Neither has any "lardy" smell at all (yes, I have a very sensitive nose), and both are nice creamy white and good and hard.
I have been reading up on adding sugar for bubbles, am thinking about giving that a try very soon.
Now with all that said, I also dug out a bar from an 80% OO batch I made about a year and a half ago.  Oh my heavens that is wonderful!


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## navigator9 (Jul 9, 2015)

Arthur, I love the way you're going about learning to soap.....try one recipe, see how it works, vary it a little, see what happens, try a new ingredient, see what that does. By not using fragrance or color, you can really concentrate on the qualities of the soap itself. I think it's a very good way to really get the basics of soapmaking under your belt. When you get ready for your next variable, may I suggest oatmeal, or some form of a milk soap? Those are my favorites. I like to add oatmeal that I've ground to a very fine powder, and also some that's ground not quite so fine, for some scrubbiness. Goat's milk, coconut milk, yogurt....they're all nice too. Have fun with your experiments!


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## Arthur Dent (Jul 15, 2015)

Funny you should mention milk, as reading the recent threads about milk soaps has given me the itch to try that.  I think I'll try the better of these two recipes mentioned earlier and see what some milk brings to the party.  
Wife has been bugging me to start adding scents to my soaps.  I don't really know why, since she doesn't even use them, she uses body wash and liquid hand soap. :crazy:


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## Susie (Jul 15, 2015)

You know you can make liquid body wash and hand soap from scratch using KOH, right?


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## Arthur Dent (Jul 16, 2015)

Thanks for the nudge Susie!  I found your excellent LS tutorial, along with some great instructions from IL and others.  I might just have to take the plunge.

Along the milk subject, I _just happened_ to find myself in the powdered milk isle while shopping last night :mrgreen:.   Is all powdered milk non-fat?  I did find some powdered goat milk, $10 for a small can :shock:.


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## gigisiguenza (Jul 22, 2015)

Susie said:


> You know you can make liquid body wash and hand soap from scratch using KOH, right?



I very much want to make liquid soap, it's on my list


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

So I have been using the following for a while and really like it after a 6 month cure:

Lard 75%
Olive oil 10%
Coconut oil 10%
Castor oil 5%
Superfat at 7%

But, I find that I can't tolerate even 10% CO long term.  I'm fine for a few days, but after a week or so I start to get itchy again, especially if I have to take an extra shower one or two days (yeah, it happens). :sad:
So I'm thinking about dropping the CO out all together, something like:

80% Lard 
15%OO 
5% Castor  

Is it even worth adding the Castor without any CO for it to work with?  I might try adding a Tblsp of sugar PPO just for giggles.
Thoughts?


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## snappyllama (Aug 4, 2015)

Have you tried PKO?  I think it's works nicely with CO to boost bubbles and feel more mild. Right now I'm digging 8% CO and 8% PKO though I might drop those further come winter.


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

I have never tried PKO, don't have a local source for that.  I might order some someday just to give it a try.


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## Saponista (Aug 4, 2015)

I make lard olive and sunflower bars as I am not keen on coconut either. They lather and clean perfectly well without the coconut. I use them with a shower sponge.


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

Hmmm... I have sunflower oil...


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## zolveria (Aug 4, 2015)

Oh the SUGAR yes

SUGAR SUGAR OOOOOOH BUBBLY BUBBLY YOU ARE MY BUBBLY GIRL AND I WANT YOU SUDSING ME 

LOL


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## Susie (Aug 4, 2015)

Arthur Dent said:


> So I have been using the following for a while and really like it after a 6 month cure:
> 
> Lard 75%
> Olive oil 10%
> ...



I am going to have to ask what other ingredients are in that soap that makes you itchy, just to be able to answer the question about the second recipe(which should be fine, I would add the sugar, though).


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

Thanks for the sugar reminder.  Is 1Tbsp PPO enough?


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

No other ingredients Susie, no scents or colors, just the oils, water, and lye.


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## DeeAnna (Aug 4, 2015)

"...Is it even worth adding the Castor without any CO for it to work with?..."

Castor enhances any lather made by the other soaps. If lard soap and olive oil soap can make lather (and of course they do!) then castor can enhance that lather. I'd sure use it -- and Susie is right the sugar will help too.


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## OliveOil2 (Aug 4, 2015)

You can get PKO at Wholesale Supplies Plus, I make a soap for my brother-in-law just using lard, olive oil ,Palm Kernel, and castor. He can't use soaps with coconut, but the PKO doesn't bother him.


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 4, 2015)

Thanks everyone for all the input.  It's in the mold now:

80% Lard 
15%OO 
5% Castor 
SF 7%
1 Tblsp sugar PPO
No scent or colors

I'll save the sunflower oil for another time.
This is my first time using sugar, it will be interesting to see how this works out.


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 6, 2015)

I cut this soap tonight.  It's a little hard to see in this photo, but it looks like it only partially gelled unless I am mistaken.  I'm a little surprised, considering the added sugar and the wooden mold.  Oh well, I don't really care as long as it turns out to be nice soap.  It sure smells good.  I didn't add any scent, I just like the smell of fresh cut high lard soap.


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## TheDragonGirl (Aug 7, 2015)

That is a nice creamy white bar, and yeah thats partial gel!


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 8, 2015)

By the way, I was out of lard when I wanted to make this batch and didn't want to drive the 30 miles to Wal-Mart.  I went to the local grocery store, it's only 17 miles away.  The lard there was almost $11 for 4 pounds whereas Wal-Mart's is under $6.  Yikes!
So this was a pricy batch of soap.


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## Jstar (Aug 9, 2015)

Yup, it can get expensive 

I render my own lard and tallow from suet I get from my grocery butcher


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## DeeAnna (Aug 12, 2015)

"...I just like the smell of fresh cut high lard soap. ..."

Me too, Arthur. It reminds me of my childhood when my grandmother made her lye and lard soap -- a warm, pleasant scent evocative of golden summer days spent with my grandparents as they did their daily routine on their farm. 

I've never thought a lard soap had the objectionable "piggy" odor that some people love to hate so much. Maybe because I helped my grandfather with chores on his hog farm when I was a teen. Also both of my brothers are hog farmers today. I know all too well what real piggy odor is like!


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## TeresaT (Aug 12, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> "...I just like the smell of fresh cut high lard soap. ..."
> 
> Me too, Arthur. It reminds me of my childhood when my grandmother made her lye and lard soap -- a warm, pleasant scent evocative of golden summer days spent with my grandparents as they did their daily routine on their farm.
> 
> I've never thought a lard soap had the objectionable "piggy" odor that some people love to hate so much. Maybe because I helped my grandfather with chores on his hog farm when I was a teen. Also both of my brothers are hog farmers today. I know all too well what real piggy odor is like!



This is a great post.  Scents are amazing in that they can trigger intense emotions, bring back fond memories or terrible times. I remember a friend lived south east of a pig farm when I was a kid growing up.  Summers were horrible if the wind was blowing wrong!  Some people in the neighborhood complained, but the hogs were there for 20 years before the fancy houses showed up.  Two of my favorite scents are sweaty horses and a horse barn.  It just brings back wonderful memories and, even though they can stink to high heaven, I always think of it as a "clean" smell.  Maybe "genuine" would be more accurate.


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## DeeAnna (Aug 12, 2015)

Mmmmmmm.... Warm horse smell ...yes!!!!


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## Jstar (Aug 13, 2015)

Oh! I LOVE horse smell..that has to be one of my all time fave smells..my family, mainly my sister thinks they stink but I love it


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## The Efficacious Gentleman (Aug 13, 2015)

Another vote for horse smell, mixed with some hay and leather.


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## nogud247 (Aug 13, 2015)

I agree fully with the horse, hay, and leather. Reminds me of my uncles farm. Worked our butts off but I've never had more fun.


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 13, 2015)

I'm the same way with the smell of horses and cows.  My wife has learned to accept my reaction over the years and just let me stand there and smell for a few moments.
I also have the same reaction to the posts here about the "piggy" smell as DeeAnna.  There is a smell imparted to soaps by a high lard content, but I do not find it objectionable, and it certainly smells nothing like pigs .


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## TeresaT (Aug 13, 2015)

Thank goodness!  I almost deleted that post.  I thought I was weird.

ETA.  Actually, I am.  But that's beside the point.


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## Jstar (Aug 13, 2015)

TeresaT said:


> Thank goodness!  I almost deleted that post.  I thought I was weird.
> 
> ETA.  Actually, I am.  But that's beside the point.



I tried that 'being normal' stuff...didn't like it..came back to being my weird self..I could never be this happy being 'normal'


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## Susie (Aug 13, 2015)

In addition to "horse barn" smell, I also love the smell of fresh turned earth and green growing things.


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## Dahila (Aug 13, 2015)

Susie so do I , nothing compares to soil when freshly moved.  I am gardener too.  Horses I have to put my two cents.  I am allergic to a lot of things and to animal hair.  
When I was grown up I was determined to ride the horses to clean the horses to spend time with the horses.  I had already succesfull career as a designer and boxers breeder, and judging them on the dog shows.  I lacked the horses) 
I honestly believe that my determination to have contact with the beautiful animals, overcome my allergies) Love the smell of them, the smell of barn,  the hay, the lather........I was deprived of going to village of being on the farm......what a waste 
I have memories connected to the lard and I had not smell piggy in the lard I buy in store.  Even If I smell something it is nice smell for me)


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## TeresaT (Aug 13, 2015)

I have a huge yard.  I love going outside after a good hard rain.  My dogs know how much I love it, so they bring that "wet earth" smell back in the house for me and leave it all over my bed.  Aren't they just the absolute BEST?  (Chase is probably out gathering scent as I write this.  Ivy is brown and the white is Shredder.)


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## Arthur Dent (Aug 18, 2015)

So now I discover that Deb has been using the 75% lard 10% coconut bars (first page this thread) and has come to really like it.  Of course I gave away the last bar a couple of days ago and haven't made more.
The good news is that I have tried a bar of the 80% lard with no coconut and a little sugar (detailed a couple of pages back), and though it is only about 10 days old it is already very good.  I don't miss the coconut at all, and the sugar seems to give the lather a nice boost.  Judging by this preview it should be really great once it's cured properly.


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