# Deer Tallow Soap



## mommycarlson (Nov 30, 2017)

I have rendered some deer fat, I have over 7 pounds!  I have read the forums from a few years back where some people made deer tallow soap and wanted to ask:

One poster used a 7% SF, is there an advantage to upping the SF?  Is this specific to deer tallow?  I make a 50% lard soap with a 5 % SF, makes a lovely soap.  

Of course I will run my recipe through soap calc, but wondered if I should just make my normal recipe and sub out the lard for deer tallow, would this be an okay thing to do?

And last, deer tallow is really hard and I wondered if perhaps that is why one poster said to use the higher SF, does the hardness of the deer tallow carry over into the hardness of the finished soap?

Thank you so much!


----------



## CaraBou (Nov 30, 2017)

You can use a normal superfat; no need for higher just because it's deer.  And you can use the same percentage of your deer tallow as you would lard (50% is fine) - just run it through a soap calc to get the right amount of lye.  Deer or venison tallow should be listed as an oil.

I haven't made a deer tallow soap, but I'm pretty confident that you shouldn't have trouble with 50% being too hard of a soap.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 1, 2017)

Thank you CaraBou!  That was my plan, I just needed some re-enforcement    Appreciate your answer.  I am going to Wisconsin for the weekend but will be making the soap when I get home.


----------



## toxikon (Dec 1, 2017)

Nothing useful to add... but post pics and let us know how they turn out! I'm curious to know how deer tallow compares to lard or beef tallow bars.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 1, 2017)

Will do Toxicon, I'm curious too.  I have not used beef tallow but my "go to" recipe is 50% lard and I love the soap, so hopefully I'll love this too!  With DH, two sons and a family friend being deer hunters, I will have an abundance of fat to render.


----------



## Obsidian (Dec 1, 2017)

I made a batch of coffee soap with deer tallow and it was one of my absolute favorites. I just used up the last bar and was hoping for more yallow this season but unfortunately, its been warm and the deer aren't very fat yet.


----------



## BrewerGeorge (Dec 1, 2017)

I haven't made soap with it, but I've butchered a few deer which makes me ask "How's it smell?"

If it's really gamey, I'd expect it to come through to the finished soap the way lard does - especially at 50%.


----------



## Obsidian (Dec 1, 2017)

The first time I used deer, I made a small batch of 100% to see how it would smell/feel. There was a very faint deer scent, not exactly gamey. I'm sure it would have covered perfectly fine with scent, might have even faded with a long cure but I shredded it after a few weeks and added it to a rebatch.
I don't think I would use it at 50%, it makes a very hard brittle soap. I'd start with 30% and see how that is.


----------



## CTAnton (Dec 1, 2017)

I wonder if a 5%KOH/95%NaOH might improve solubility.I regularly make close to 80% deer tallow soap. Can't say I find it brittle but it does last FOREVER. I do use sugar and aloe juice to increase bubbles. YMMV.


----------



## DirtyKnuckles (Dec 2, 2017)

CTAnton said:


> I wonder if a 5%KOH/95%NaOH might improve solubility.I regularly make close to 80% deer tallow soap. Can't say I find it brittle but it does last FOREVER. I do use sugar and aloe juice to increase bubbles. YMMV.



I have made two batches of pure deer tallow soap now and have been VERY pleased with how long a bar lasts, how incredibly well it cleans everything from dirt to blood to motor oil from my dirty knuckles.  

But I have noticed that I get very little sudsing from my soap.  Can you explain the use of sugar and aloe that you mentioned in your comment?  I am interested. 

(I harvested a full 6 lbs of fat from ONE young whitetail doe last week. Gonna be the soap king!)


----------



## CTAnton (Dec 3, 2017)

DirtyKnuckles said:


> I have made two batches of pure deer tallow soap now and have been VERY pleased with how long a bar lasts, how incredibly well it cleans everything from dirt to blood to motor oil from my dirty knuckles.
> 
> But I have noticed that I get very little sudsing from my soap.  Can you explain the use of sugar and aloe that you mentioned in your comment?  I am interested.
> 
> (I harvested a full 6 lbs of fat from ONE young whitetail doe last week. Gonna be the soap king!)



I use aloe juice as opposed to water in all my batches unless I'm making a beer soap or one using a milk.Cheap enough at Wally World in the pharmacy. I then dissolve a Tablespoon of sugar/ppo of oils in the aloe juice.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 3, 2017)

BrewerGeorge said:


> I haven't made soap with it, but I've butchered a few deer which makes me ask "How's it smell?"
> 
> If it's really gamey, I'd expect it to come through to the finished soap the way lard does - especially at 50%.



BG, the rendered tallow is virtually odorless.  I am hoping to make a batch today and see how it comes out.  I don't have any lard smell with any of my soaps and I soap with lard at 50%.  So we'll see how the deer tallow comes out.  

I still can't figure out how to multi-quote a message


----------



## SaltedFig (Dec 3, 2017)

Hi mommycarlson,



mommycarlson said:


> I still can't figure out how to multi-quote a message  :sad:



To multi-quote:

Step 1:
Click the plus sign, on the bottom right hand side of your page for each one of the posts you would like to include in your multi quote.




Step 2:
When you get to the last post you would like to include, click the quote button instead.



From there, you can add your own text into your post, as per normal.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 4, 2017)

SaltedFig, that helps!  I think I can now multi quote a message   Thank you!


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 4, 2017)

I have unmolded the two deer tallow soaps this morning.  I was not going to use any color but since I decided to make one batch with 75% tallow and one with 50%, I put a drop swirl of brown in the 75% and green in the 50% just so it would be easier for me to keep them straight.  So here they are.  They are going on the curing shelf, there is a long list of volunteer testers waiting for this soap, I may have to make more.  I was thinking I'd make a 30% deer tallow soap, any suggestions on a recipe?


----------



## bathgeek (Dec 4, 2017)

They are very pretty! No suggestion, just here to admire.


----------



## Saponificarian (Dec 4, 2017)

How about 30% each Deer Tallow, Shea Butter and a liquid oil with 10% Coconut? I love this recipe.. I have been told Shea and lard are similar so maybe Lard instead of Shea? I have heard Shea cuts lather but my lather is great even with 10% Coconut/PKO. Another one I like is 42% Shea, 40% Tallow, 13% Chicken fat and 5% Castor. The ultimate slow tracing recipe.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 4, 2017)

bathgeek said:


> They are very pretty! No suggestion, just here to admire.



Thank you!



Saponificarian said:


> How about 30% each Deer Tallow, Shea Butter and a liquid oil with 10% Coconut? I love this recipe.. I have been told Shea and lard are similar so maybe Lard instead of Shea? I have heard Shea cuts lather but my lather is great even with 10% Coconut/PKO. Another one I like is 42% Shea, 40% Tallow, 13% Chicken fat and 5% Castor. The ultimate slow tracing recipe.



I was wondering if lard and tallow could be used together, I don't have any shea butter any more, stopped buying it in favor of lard.  The 50 and 75% deer tallows both traced super slow, this morning I made a 30% deer tallow that traced much faster.  Thank you for the suggestions.  I will give one of them a try today.

ETA:  How about this
30% deer tallow
30% lard
25% OO pomace
10% coconut
5% castor


----------



## Saponificarian (Dec 4, 2017)

mommycarlson said:


> Thank you!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



This will be nice. I have a recipe like this except I used the exact percentage for Shea instead of Lard. Can’t use Lard so my go to is Shea for substitution.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 4, 2017)

Saponificarian said:


> This will be nice. I have a recipe like this except I used the exact percentage for Shea instead of Lard. Can’t use Lard so my go to is Shea for substitution.



I think this will be my 4th test batch!    thank you for your input


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Dec 4, 2017)

I received a bar of deer tallow soap in a swap once. I thought it smelled awful. Ugh. Now I'm wondering if the soaper didn't render the fat correctly or clean enough? or maybe left too much unsapped fats? Hmmm.


----------



## CTAnton (Dec 4, 2017)

Zany I use 75% deer tallow in some soaps...never had a smell..I think you're right...the problem probably lies in the rendering....


----------



## Obsidian (Dec 4, 2017)

Animal fat can also smell if it get heated too much, either during rendering or during melting. The first few times I used lard I heated it way too much and it stunk, never did go away. Now I just get it warm enough to be fully melted, no smell.


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Dec 5, 2017)

mommycarlson said:


> I still can't figure out how to multi-quote a message


In addition to Fig's post showing how to do it, you can also edit each quote to show only the phrase you want to respond to.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 5, 2017)

Thank you Zany, very helpful, now that I've done the multi-quote the true test will be if I can remember how to do it next time  

I have cut the next two deer tallow soaps.  The one on the left is 30% DT, 30% lard, 25% OO pomace, 10% CO, 5% Castor
I did a little gold mica swirl in there, which you can't really see right now, it got really thick on me (just the batter that I added the mica to) so I ended up globbing that gold part in and then attempting a spoon swirl.  This FO looks like it's going to discolor so maybe the gold will show up.

The one on the right is 40% OO, 30% DT, 30% CO.  If I had to pick a favorite of the 4 at this point it would  be this one, the texture is really nice, was very creamy going into the mold and is such a pretty color.  Time will tell, they are all hanging out together on the curing shelf.


----------



## SherylG (Dec 5, 2017)

Thank you for the info and pics re deer soap! I have wondered how soap would turn out from rendered wild game fat. I could possibly have access to moose and bear fat to render for soap. I have rendered my own tallow many times from beef trimmings with great success. All the fat from the ungulates (deer, sheep, moose, elk, etc) will probably be as hard as beef (also in ungulate family) but I have noticed that lard is quite a bit softer, although it still makes a hard soap. No idea how hard the bear fat will be. I have occasional access to chicken fat too, which is also harder than lard, but it's usually flavored with garlic so I cook with it instead. It's great for frying   Something you could do with deer fat, as well. Lots of omega 3's in animal fats, especially wild ones who eat a lot of what they should be eating - grass and greens...not high sugar corn and grains.

I have never noticed a smell from the beef fat. I think if rendered clean there shouldn't be any smell left. I boil 2-3 times and use salt to make a cleaner render.


----------



## mommycarlson (Dec 5, 2017)

SherylG said:


> Thank you for the info and pics re deer soap
> 
> You're welcome!


----------



## Susan Parlee (Nov 6, 2019)

I have just finished rendering my first batch of deer tallow.  Turned out nice and white after three clarifying batches however still has the deer smell.  I have another bag of fat to render and was thinking about adding some essential oil to the water on the last clarifying batch to see if it would eliminate some of the smell.  The tallow will only be used in soap.  Has anyone ever tried this?


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Nov 7, 2019)

Susan Parlee said:


> I have just finished rendering my first batch of deer tallow.  Turned out nice and white after three clarifying batches however still has the deer smell.


I received a bar of deer tallow soap in a swap once. I found the odor to be quite strong. Oakmoss neutralizes the odor of tallow and lard.  Add it to the warmed oils before adding the lye solution. I buy the Oakmoss Absolute and dilute it (10%) in jojoba to make it easy to work with and long lasting. Use Rate: 0.7%; 1/4-1/2 tsp PPO.

Some suppliers sell the 10% dilution which is far less expensive.

HTH


----------



## Susan Parlee (Nov 8, 2019)

Just found a supplier for oakmoss absolute.  Will give it a try - thank you!  Have you ever used oak moss in a raw form in your soap?
I did try two small batches putting eo in the water in one and fo in the other.  You can smell the scent however the deer smell is still there.  Will the deer smell dissipate when missed with the lye solution?


----------



## Zany_in_CO (Nov 8, 2019)

I've never soaped deer tallow, so I can't really say.

With beef tallow and lard it made a difference. No odor at all. When I first made animal fat soap without the oakmoss, I had a friend who said she really liked it, but when she showered, the smell made her hungry for a hamburger! 

Yes, I've used it in "raw form" when I first started soaping in 2004. In those days the recommendation was to pull some out of the bottle with a toothpick and add it to the fats. That worked well. We'd tell each others things like _"I used 2 toothpicks worth in this batch."_


----------



## KJ Goodman (Dec 4, 2019)

We just finished rendering our deer tallow from hunting season. I had 5 gallons of tallow before we rendered. I have been reading all your posts  .. I usually use lard we render in my soaps. it never occurred to me to mix lard and tallow.... i find that interesting. I read mixed reviews of 100% lard or 100% tallow bars. people seem to use that for laundry soap? so that makes me worry about skin? any thoughts?
Anyway I am super excited to make deer tallow soap. We have a large family that participates in our "wisconsin deer camp" so I think I will do a "deer camp" batch with pine infused OO and Leinies.
If anyone has some thoughts on the "feel" sudsi-ness that has more experience with tallow. I would really appreciate it.


----------

