davidsoaps
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First time using tallow. How much should I use (percentage)? What other oils might I use to balance the soap?
first time using tallow
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Soap Techniques
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I use 40-45% - I like hard soap bars. Tallow doesn't accelerate trace.
I have some Tallow here to play with and I am going to just replace the Palm component of my recipe which is roughly 30% :0) I would suggest adding Olive and Castor ( no more than 5% castor) and throw in a butter maybe................no definately 
then what about the Coconut??? The possibliities are endless you can of course visit Soapcalc and have a play with your oils there.....................Let us know how it goes
then what about the Coconut??? The possibliities are endless you can of course visit Soapcalc and have a play with your oils there.....................Let us know how it goes davidsoaps
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Thanks.. I've been rendering and rerendering this tallow trying to get the stink out. I've been putting scoops of salt and baking soda in the pot each time. Seems to be working a little bit. There is still a faint beefy odor which I can't stand and I hope it isn't still there when I'm done. I'm hoping eos will mask the scent.
davidsoaps
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..also I'm trying to keep additional oils to a minimum because I am trying to appreciate the basic properties of each oil since I am new to soap making. So I guess I will do 40% tallow and the 30& 30 of two others.
Kansas Farm Girl
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I've had very good results with tallow. If is smells like beef I don't notice, beef is an odor that I like, specially if it's a gently cooked steak on my plate. I have never smelled it in my soap, and in fact a friend who doesn't like the smell of young soap says tallow soap does not have nearly as much of the young soap/lye smell. I like 40% tallow, olive 30%, coconut 19% and sunflower 5%. I sometimes swap out caster oil for the sunflower or adjust others to include both. I have used up to 50% tallow to get a harder bar without a lot of coconut.
I use 35% tallow in a lot of my recipes and love it! I also use Coconut & Olive oils in with it.
Yooper
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I've only recently done tallow soaps. One was 100% tallow and homebrewed beer, and one was 60% tallow (the rest were olive and coconut oils).
It makes a very hard bar, and I like it so far. My tallow was rendered and then frozen. When heated, I strained it again though cheesecloth into my soap making bowl. There is absolutely no beefy aroma at all, and the soaps are very nice. They are about 6 weeks old at this point.
It makes a very hard bar, and I like it so far. My tallow was rendered and then frozen. When heated, I strained it again though cheesecloth into my soap making bowl. There is absolutely no beefy aroma at all, and the soaps are very nice. They are about 6 weeks old at this point.
davidsoaps
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Yooper said:
Did you use any fragrance or essential oils? which one came out better?
Yooper
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I use very little in the way of fragrances, only essential oils. For the beer/tallow soap, I used a little orange essential oil. It's nice, with a dark tan color from the beer.
My husband loves the beer/tallow soap. It is very hard, with a nice lather (due to the sugar in the beer, as well as the tallow, I assume). I superfatted at 8%, but it leaves me "squeeky clean" and I don't care for it as much as he does. (I have dry skin). It got an "8" for cleansing on soap calc, but it is plenty cleansing!
For the "mostly tallow" batch, I just checked and it was 52% tallow, 24% olive oil, and 24% coconut oil. I melted 1/2 of a square of baker's chocolate in a bit of the soap, and used peppermint EO and did a swirl. I like this one far better! But my husband still prefers the other one, with 100% tallow. He said he likes the "feel" of it better.
Both bars are hard, and both lather well. I will do them both again, probably exactly the same way, but I may increase the superfat of the 100% tallow to see if it feels less squeeky clean to me.
My husband loves the beer/tallow soap. It is very hard, with a nice lather (due to the sugar in the beer, as well as the tallow, I assume). I superfatted at 8%, but it leaves me "squeeky clean" and I don't care for it as much as he does. (I have dry skin). It got an "8" for cleansing on soap calc, but it is plenty cleansing!
For the "mostly tallow" batch, I just checked and it was 52% tallow, 24% olive oil, and 24% coconut oil. I melted 1/2 of a square of baker's chocolate in a bit of the soap, and used peppermint EO and did a swirl. I like this one far better! But my husband still prefers the other one, with 100% tallow. He said he likes the "feel" of it better.
Both bars are hard, and both lather well. I will do them both again, probably exactly the same way, but I may increase the superfat of the 100% tallow to see if it feels less squeeky clean to me.
Nice!
Aftter making my first ever batch with an existing vege oil recipe I decided to play around with tallow. I had to subsitute tallow in my vege batch because I ran out if coconut oil. I used about 15% tallow in that batch. It worked perfectly, was an ok soap but didn't set my pants on fire. I've just made my second batch of soap with 70% tallow just to see what happens and also because I like to understand the properties of an ingredient rather than just stick to others recommendations alone. A good way to do that is to reduce the number of ingredients until you understand each one.
So, this time I coloured it with rosehip tea in the lye water. It was a really strong brew of tea that turned my liquid chocolate brown as I was mixing. The soap got to thick trace in about 6 mins of handstirring, I dumped my EO mix in, some scrubby stuff I ground up out of my kitchen cupboards and dumped it in a mold. It set up in no time, gelled, then I cut it after 5hrs as it was getting superhard. When it gelled I noticed it took longer than my vege soap to do so and didn't go as translucent as the vege soap did.
The colourant is honey brown where it was exposed to the air but I've noticed it to be a russet red in the rest of the soap. That was a bonus as I was quite happy even with the light tan. I can't smell my EO much but then I think I've just stopped smelling it actually. I went out for a walk and came back to a quite strong whiff of it in the room. I used about 700gms of oils (2.5lbs?) and that made a 1kg loaf of soap, which is a nice size for a test batch. Not too much wasted if it all goes south.
I'll re-post after its cured to give my impressions. Neither of my batches were superfatted and I didn't find the vege soap to be drying at all. What I didn't like about that soap was how soft it was, it basically disappeared down the drain and the fact I didn't pretty it up with anything. That one was only 30% hard oils so to be expected I suppose. It had a slightly rubbery feel to it as well I wasn't keen on.
After 24hrs this soap is rock hard. Its also become chocolate brown in colour now. The fragrance is more pronounced and a quick lick revealed no zappiness. I cut the loaf into 6 jumbo bars and removed the discoloured top with a potatoe peeler. As impatient as I am I tested one bar by cleaning my makeup brushes with it. I like it for that as all the powder and skin oil gunk was removed very efficiently leaving my brushes beautiful. I used to use hair shampoo for that job but it never got the loose powder properly out if the brush.
I prefer the lather in this soap to the vegie one and the after skin feel is not as squeaky as the vegie soap. I also tested it on a dirty shirt to see if its good for laundry. It cleans okay but the tea stain makes the water run an alarming shade of cinnamon i don't think I'd take this batch to any of my whites. From this small experience I have to say that overall I like tallow for its cost, ease if use (no stick blender required for quick trace) and finished product. The lather wouldn't satisfy most peoples idea of suds but I do like the silken feel to it. Will be nice to revisit this soap in 4 weeks time.
So, this time I coloured it with rosehip tea in the lye water. It was a really strong brew of tea that turned my liquid chocolate brown as I was mixing. The soap got to thick trace in about 6 mins of handstirring, I dumped my EO mix in, some scrubby stuff I ground up out of my kitchen cupboards and dumped it in a mold. It set up in no time, gelled, then I cut it after 5hrs as it was getting superhard. When it gelled I noticed it took longer than my vege soap to do so and didn't go as translucent as the vege soap did.
The colourant is honey brown where it was exposed to the air but I've noticed it to be a russet red in the rest of the soap. That was a bonus as I was quite happy even with the light tan. I can't smell my EO much but then I think I've just stopped smelling it actually. I went out for a walk and came back to a quite strong whiff of it in the room. I used about 700gms of oils (2.5lbs?) and that made a 1kg loaf of soap, which is a nice size for a test batch. Not too much wasted if it all goes south.
I'll re-post after its cured to give my impressions. Neither of my batches were superfatted and I didn't find the vege soap to be drying at all. What I didn't like about that soap was how soft it was, it basically disappeared down the drain and the fact I didn't pretty it up with anything. That one was only 30% hard oils so to be expected I suppose. It had a slightly rubbery feel to it as well I wasn't keen on.
After 24hrs this soap is rock hard. Its also become chocolate brown in colour now. The fragrance is more pronounced and a quick lick revealed no zappiness. I cut the loaf into 6 jumbo bars and removed the discoloured top with a potatoe peeler. As impatient as I am I tested one bar by cleaning my makeup brushes with it. I like it for that as all the powder and skin oil gunk was removed very efficiently leaving my brushes beautiful. I used to use hair shampoo for that job but it never got the loose powder properly out if the brush.
I prefer the lather in this soap to the vegie one and the after skin feel is not as squeaky as the vegie soap. I also tested it on a dirty shirt to see if its good for laundry. It cleans okay but the tea stain makes the water run an alarming shade of cinnamon i don't think I'd take this batch to any of my whites. From this small experience I have to say that overall I like tallow for its cost, ease if use (no stick blender required for quick trace) and finished product. The lather wouldn't satisfy most peoples idea of suds but I do like the silken feel to it. Will be nice to revisit this soap in 4 weeks time.
Yooper
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Thanks for the input on your experience!
Just yesterday, I tried the 62% tallow bar again. It's really marvelous, and now it's about 12 weeks old, I think. I like everything about it- the lather, the "slide" of the bar on my skin, the feel of the soap, and that I'm clean but not "squeeky clean". The bar is hard- very hard. The 100% tallow bar is better than it was, but still a bit drying for me. I did 8% superfat on both, I believe.
I think the mostly-tallow soap is going to be my house soap, at least until the tallow is gone. It really stretches the more expensive oils, since tallow is free except for the cost of fuel for rendering it. I've been very happy with the results, and that is the main thing.
It's deer season in our area, and I'm hoping to get a deer with my bow in the next week or so. I want to render the deer tallow, and see how it compares to the beef tallow. We are also getting our beef next month, so I'll have more beef tallow then as well. I'll just have to freeze the tallow until I can render it.
Just yesterday, I tried the 62% tallow bar again. It's really marvelous, and now it's about 12 weeks old, I think. I like everything about it- the lather, the "slide" of the bar on my skin, the feel of the soap, and that I'm clean but not "squeeky clean". The bar is hard- very hard. The 100% tallow bar is better than it was, but still a bit drying for me. I did 8% superfat on both, I believe.
I think the mostly-tallow soap is going to be my house soap, at least until the tallow is gone. It really stretches the more expensive oils, since tallow is free except for the cost of fuel for rendering it. I've been very happy with the results, and that is the main thing.
It's deer season in our area, and I'm hoping to get a deer with my bow in the next week or so. I want to render the deer tallow, and see how it compares to the beef tallow. We are also getting our beef next month, so I'll have more beef tallow then as well. I'll just have to freeze the tallow until I can render it.
So I got some pork fatback, lamb fatback and suet from an organic supplier today. I didn't go super crazy just got a few kilos to try rendering. The smell isn't bad, pretty similar to cooking a stew really. I cut it smallish, let it simmer for an hour then hit it with my Bamix and a mincer blade before letting it simmer a while longer. Just straining it off now. Once the animal goo is strained out leftover liquid doesn't have much smell.
After straining my lard I reheated it to evaporate water out of it and strained it again through a stocking when it was just above room temp. Its's now so white it's almost clear. a kilo of hog and lamb fat has yielded me about 580gms of pure lard. I thought I would get more out of it than that but then again I probably lost quite a bit with the minced goo I strained out of it. I didn't exactly take my time getting every last drop out of it. :roll: Quite a simple process really, time intensive but not labour intensive. Adds a new dimension to traditional soap making. :wink:
a kilo of hog and lamb fat has yielded me about 580gms of pure lard. I thought I would get more out of it than that but then again I probably lost quite a bit with the minced goo I strained out of it. I didn't exactly take my time getting every last drop out of it. :roll: Quite a simple process really, time intensive but not labour intensive. Adds a new dimension to traditional soap making. :wink:
AngelMomma
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I got some free beef fat from my local grocer awhile back. Seems I made about a ba-jillion mistakes rendering it down. Was my first time. I was in a hurry that day, had to leave the house and the fridge was full. So I pulled out the roaster and another big dish and threw a couple of packs in each one. I had forgotten I had read that I should have trimmed it better and chopped it up smaller. Then I heated it probably hotter than it should have been. I came out with 3 1/2 quarts. The amount is GREAT.......but UGH the smell!!! Makes me want to yack! My family doesn't think so, but I think it still smells so strong. I did use a little in a batch of soap.......we will see.........
mine has very little smell but a creamy kind of animalic fragrance that supermarket tallow doesn't have thanks to some chemical deodorants. But I'm banking on the fact that CP soap is so effective at destroying most smells it will kill whatever slight pigginess may exist in my soap. I'm rendering my beef suet today and it smells like I'm cooking brisket. Not my favourite scent in soap mind you but I can alway throw in some Thyme and Rosemary EOs and call it 'roast soap'.
Apparently how you render the tallow will determine it's scent. If you take the time to remove all meaty traces from the fat before rendering (for fatback) then it smell a lot better. The higher the temp you render at the more likely it will develop a smell. Some people render with a sprig of fresh herbs in it to deodorise any scent.
Apparently how you render the tallow will determine it's scent. If you take the time to remove all meaty traces from the fat before rendering (for fatback) then it smell a lot better. The higher the temp you render at the more likely it will develop a smell. Some people render with a sprig of fresh herbs in it to deodorise any scent.
