Generally the order in terms of quality with olive oil are: extra virgin, pure/light olive oil, then pomace. If someone wants to correct me on that they are more than welcome.
As I understand it, the pomace olive oil is obtained at the third or so pressing, and they sometimes use hexane to obtain the oil.
Pomace traces quicker than normal olive oil.
I'm asking cause I bought some OO and it says "olive oil". That's it. I saw the light OO at WM and EVOO of course but that's the only 3 they had so i'll assume this was pure oo.
I'll have to order some from WSS. I've been looking at oils in the stores where I go. hehe
Rosey, if you have a Costco near you that's usually the best place to get OO. It's cheaper per pound than buying 35lb cubes (like wine in a box) from Columbus Foods. Last time I was bought it was $22.99 for 5 Liters. (169 oz).
I like using the light oo because it will still give you a white soap, depending on what other oils you soap it with.
I have also found that with sunflower oil, the cheaper version is much much darker yellow in colour than the more expensive one (no frills versus chrisco brand). The chrisco one is a very pale light yellow colour, and is high oleic. I bought that one. I don't use sunflower a lot, but occasionally I do like it.
i get my pomace at local italian store..on sale i pay 9.99 for 3 liters...i can,t believe how much its gone up the past few years..i used to pay 4.99 for 3 liters....but i love handmade soap..i cant use the junk u buy in the store anymore....
I've been using pomace lately, and have been pleased. But, I made a
batch of castile without discounting the water- soft loaf. I shredded some
to incorporate into other bars, and stored it in a ziplock bag (not zipped tight,
so it had air circulation) in the spare bedroom. Last week, I went to use it and
half of the shreds were the original lovely light green. The other half were ORANGE-
the whole thing smelled rancid.
That worries me. None of my soaps have gone bad, so I don't know what's
going on.
Rosey, I buy the same OO that you got from Wal-Mart. It doesn't say Extra Virgin or Light Extra Virgin. It just says "Pure Olive Oil" and it's the Great Value brand. It works great! It doesn't accelerate trace and makes for a very white bar of soap. Oh, and it's NOT Pomace. Pomace has a green tint.
I'm attaching a picture of soap made from 100% OO of that brand. It came out really hard and white and mild:
In that picture, it was only a few days old. But it's the end piece so it was drier than the rest of the batch. I eventually let it cure for about 3 months. I kept waiting for it to get less mushy but finally realized it wasn't and that was the slimey-ness everyone was talking about. I'll be doing Bastile from now on.