Corrine12
Active Member
And is tallow the same as lard?
Tallow is beef fat, lard is pig fat, so no, not the same, and they also have different properties.And is tallow the same as lard?
OOPS, you are correct. I knew that! LOL I just always think of tallow as beef fat, so my bad. Thanks for the correction @earleneThere are many types of tallow, bear tallow, deer tallow, beef tallow, and so on.
To be fair, most of the time when people say "tallow" without specifying what it came from, they mean beef tallow.OOPS, you are correct. I knew that! LOL I just always think of tallow as beef fat, so my bad. Thanks for the correction @earlene
I thought I was the only one that felt the gag reflex when using tallow! lolIf you dig around on the forum, there is a recipe for a vegan oil blend that replaces lard. I think it is @IrishLass baby, I've used it several times and it is better (IMO) than lard or tallow. It's on my list to do an experiment comparing 100% lard, 100% tallow, and 100% of the vegan blend... even though 100% lard or tallow soaps make me gag with the animal smell.
That said, a few years ago I switched out lard for tallow in my recipes. It "seems" that bars are a bit harder, but I only base that on the wait time for stamping between the lard and tallow soaps. With the lard soaps I always had to wait until the next day (12-24 hours) to stamp, but with tallow soaps I can stamp right after cutting, worst wait is 2 hours if I've unmolded a bit earlier than usual. The other thing I notice is that tallow doesn't smell as much lard in the soap. I use 25% in my recipe, and the lard soaps always smelled like bacon to me. Tallow I only notice a slight aroma. I do not notice a difference in cleansing, although tallow is supposed to be more cleansing than lard.
To clarify, when I say tallow, I mean beef tallow.
Genuine :just wanted to say I admire you as a civic compassionate person, one of many on this soapers forum!However, the question remains how much of “plants where the [calories] is the main reason for growing them” the animals were fed during their lives, if the environmental footprint argument is valid or self-deceptive.
Transparency is maybe in reach for the local butcher, but not everyone renders their own tallow. Who reads your ingredient lists/recipes? Can you be sure for industrial agriculture (supermarket, soapmaking bulk suppliers)? Do you want to send the signal “When in doubt, I'm fine with parasitically gaining benefits for the justification of harm to animals, methane emissions, and soybean monocultures in South America”?
So many (seemingly) easy answers to complicated questions! So many contradictions! I don't see an alternative to always keep some level of skepticism.
However, the question remains how much of “plants where the [calories] is the main reason for growing them” the animals were fed during their lives, if the environmental footprint argument is valid or self-deceptive.
Transparency is maybe in reach for the local butcher, but not everyone renders their own tallow. Who reads your ingredient lists/recipes? Can you be sure for industrial agriculture (supermarket, soapmaking bulk suppliers)? Do you want to send the signal “When in doubt, I'm fine with parasitically gaining benefits for the justification of harm to animals, methane emissions, and soybean monocultures in South America”?
So many (seemingly) easy answers to complicated questions! So many contradictions! I don't see an alternative to always keep some level of skepticism.
That's an interesting hypothesis, and I'm curious on which sources you are relying for it? You appear to be interested in an objective, unemotional and economical point of view on this discussion, and I very much honour such attempts! There is too much whataboutism and FUD in these debates, time to enrich them with hard facts. I'm happy to be convinced! But on the other hand I also know too much about the big-money meat industry, to be very skeptical that they have never tried to monetise animal fats.If no one in the world used commercially produced animal fats for anything at all the number of animals raised for meat would not change
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