Lard soap fail?

[CamillaHB]

I wanted a white soap and decided to use lard. My recipe was as follows:

375g lard
125 g coconut oil
190 g water
72g NaOH

The lye calculator says that that would give me 5% superfat (I held back 25g CO and added it at trace, so my superfat would be CO and not lard).
I mixed the ingredients at 40 degrees Celcius (100 F).

This should be really straightforward, however, I had a wildcard, because I bought the lard in the supermarket, and that had citric acid and other antioxidants added. Interesting to see if that would affect the result.

And I am afraid that I now may have a highly superfatted lard ... bar. It does not smell like soap but like lard.
I wanted to use it as cupcake topping, but it was either too soft or too hard, and that was probably a combination of lack of timing and a small nozzle (must get a bigger one).
Now, I don't know if the stiffness comes from a real or a false trace. If it is a false trace I suppose I can still hope that the lard excess will go away as the soap cures.
Is this scenario likely, or should I just throw the stuff out, the sooner the better?

 

[falldowngobump]

I think the lye will take what it wants regardless of when you add an oil or butter for a superfat. There is no way of knowing what the lye will leave due to the fact that sophonification occures over the next several hours. (I do CP, not HP) I melt all my oils and butters together, including the superfat. I use lard a lot and sometimes they will smell a little 'lardy' at at first--the smell goes away as the soap cures. I find that heating my lard above 120 degrees F will contribute to that, so I melt low and slow. I buy my lard in buckets at the grocery store, I'm sure it contains preservatives and such. It makes great soap. If the soap is not zappy it's probably ok, I would take the wait and see approach and then rebatch if you're not happy. I hate to waste good oils. Good luck!

 

[ToniD]

Sometimes the smell can take a little while to go away. I made a bar with tallow and lanolin with egg the other day as an experiment and it stank!!! I mean, if there were such a thing as a stinky soap competition, that batch would have won hands down. Smelled a bit like wet dog that just rolled in dead animal. (I am well aware of that smell cuz my lab occasionally found dead animals to roll in) Anyway, after a few days it is fine and the smell is gone.

I have never had any trouble with lard from the grocery store and the additives in it.


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[CamillaHB]

I put it in the oven, and the part I tried to colour with cocoa powder is oozing lard. For some reason the uncoloured part doesn't. But putting it in the oven made the soap slightly translucent, which is quite cool.

I am glad to know that store bought lard works for you. This means that it can work (although there might be regional differences).
So maybe I should wait and see how it turns out after a while.

 

[carebear]

It should be just fine. The amount of citric acid is just a trace so don't worry about it counteracting the lye. And as was said above, no need to hold a certain oil for superfatting a CP soap as the vast majority of the lye is still free and roaming at trace and will react with any oil it comes across. Sadly.

Hope it's marvelous!

 

[CamillaHB]

I thought 90% of the lye had reacted once trace had been reached. But if most of it is still around at trace, I see your point.

The reason I thought the citric acid was counteracting the lye was that it took long to trace and my soap looked greasy. But I now learned that lard does take long to trace. So it may be OK - except from he small lard puddles on top. But a knife can take care of that.

 

[IrishLass]

I thought 90% of the lye had reacted once trace had been reached. But if most of it is still around at trace, I see your point.

That's one of those soaping myths floating about the net and even in some soaping books. I've read from chemists that it's somewhere from 50% to 85% or so unreacted (that's why it's still liquid and not solid).

IrishLass

 

[carebear]

Kevin Dunn said, and I wish I could find it, that it was in the area of 85% UN reacted at heavy trace, and at light trace it was barely reacted - just enough to emulsify the mixture.

All very loosey goosey since "trace" is not well defined.