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Similar to what dixie says above, a good start would be just replacing the beef tallow in your recipe with shea butter. You can tweak the olive and coconut amounts as you wish once you have a reference. I personally like a bit more coconut (25% vs my normal 20%) in a vegan bar because it helps...

I'm watching a youtube series about 18th century cooking from the excellent Townsends channel from here in Indiana. He's been talking about the difference between suet and tallow in cooking, which of course got me thinking about soap. Suet is organ fat from around the kidneys and is much...

I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but just to be clear: You know it's not a problem if it gels, right? Your description makes it sound really bad... Could you mean 'overheat' instead of gel? Is it wrinkly and weepy in the middle or just clearer/gelled?

I haven't tried this particular technique, but I've used a loaf mold like a slab for other things. Just pour it one bar high, so what would normally be the top becomes the face.

My first thought would be false trace from soaping at 85F. Try things at 100F and see what happens. As for the recipe, the biggest problem I have with it is the 10% superfat. Considering the fact that the lye we're all using is not 100% pure which drives up the superfat even more, your bars...

Could be the hot water bringing out different notes, too. Try one of the new ones at the sink with hot water and see what you get, as compliment to NsMar42111's advice. Amber IS typically a musky scent.

I've been using popcorn oil for a couple of years.

First, that's most likely soda ash. Second, that batch size is too small. If you have a typical kitchen scale precise to the single gram, you should make at least a 500g (of oil) batch to minimize the impact of the imprecision.

That's what I would do - with some caveats: 1) You'll need to use an inkjet or dot matrix for the second pass; it's not a good idea to run a second pass with a laser printer. 2) Your current labels need to be able to accept the ink. If they're too shiny, or solid toner or something it probably...

That's a good point and probably true.

I have the same gemstone collection and they're definitely just "Nice." I haven't even used them all.

Irish Moss is what is called a "kettle fining." That is, it's used during the last few minutes of boiling the wort. Gelatin and Isinglass are "tank finings" They are used cold, after fermentation is complete, to knock down yeasts haze and protein haze caused by chilling. The point being...

The 3-3 I mentioned above produces a translucent yolk that I like better for eating whole instead of the lighter opaque yolk that is more typical. These yolks are totally solid, but you can't mash them up for egg salad because they squish rather than shatter. Rather like the yolk from an egg...

I ascribe to the Alton Brown "only one unitasker" (fire extinguisher) philosophy. I do have a dedicated yogurt maker, but I got that as a gift and it mostly lives in the garage. I don't even have a fryer, preferring a dutch oven on the stove top. I eat two hard boiled eggs for breakfast...

One more thing... If you have the 8-quart model, you can stand four, quart Ball/Mason jars in the middle and just close the lid. Add water around them and you can pressure-can in this thing! Manual, of course, following all Ball Blue Book recommendations. It works great for that broth...

I bought mine a year ago on Prime day and I use it a lot. My very favorite thing is pressure cooked eggs. They peel SO much easier than any other method - no matter how fresh the eggs are. Stack them up in the steamer basket and add a cup of hot tap water. Lid up, manual high pressure...

Adding it to the water is too messy. I cut a little square of moleskin tape about a centimeter on a side and stick it to the inside of the humidifier above the air intake. Just one drop every night is enough - two drops is too strong.

Nice to know. I love lavender so much, but dislike spoiled lavender more. I've been using lavender EO drops in my CPAP machine for a couple of years and old lavender is revolting. It's weird because it's objectively not nearly as bad as some other smells, but as compared to good lavender the...

No I settled on sodium citrate because it has dual purpose for cooking as well. Here's a pic. It's lighter in the pic than it was on the phone when I took it. You can still see the brownish spots. And before anybody says anything: I know you're not supposed to use soap on cast iron, but the...

I make a bar with tea tree and peppermint, plus lots of charcoal. I use it only for my face so a one kilogram batch lasts a very long time - probably two months plus for each of the eight bars. I grabbed the last bar of the last batch yesterday which is, at a guess without checking my notes...