Second Batch today - Beef tallow with coconut sauce

[Techie Joe]

I love eating out. Usually the food is nicely cooked and flavorsome, but today I will be cooking this batch from home.
I haven't decided on the exact recipe yet but I'm sure it will be delicious. I got some eucalyptus globus yesterday so I will adding a few drops so that the soap smells better than an abandoned compost heap, or different anyway.

Obsidian suggested this recipe...
Lard 50% (or palm oil)
Olive oil 25%
Coconut oil 20%
Castor oil 5%

Ideally its Pig fat but that leaves me with one of two possible options;
1, lure a Pig into the bushes with some cabbage, slaughter it and boil its fat, or
2, buy 250 grams of beef fat with added canola oil, which they have in every shop in the village

So the beef and other oils will go into the slow cooker (crock pot) until they melt and heat up some more, then I will mix the caustic Soda (lye) and add that.
The usual method is to stir with a hand blender until trace, then either pour it or cook for another hour or so.

I will be experimenting with this batch by blending for up to 10 minutes in the cooker until it is fairly thick but still runny enough to go into the mould corners, then adding the smell and pouring.

I got the idea from a you tube video called "10 minute Hot Process Soap using stick blender", but I must mention that the video is hard to watch for 4 reasons...
1. The music is louder than the guy speaking, always a terrible choice for video production
2. The music is a chore to sit through
3. Bedroom voice
4. Black hands, white legs. I initially found this quite distracting until I realized that he was wearing an apron with a picture of an underwear model on the front
But once you get past all that I'm sure it will be interesting.
He also uses a blender capable of operating for more than 30 seconds at a time, I should get one if this works out.

I know this is neither a hot nor cold process, but whatever it is I will let you know how it turns out, and it will likely need to sit for several weeks anyway.

 

[artemis]

This process has been discussed here before. I don't know if it is about the same video, but the discussion may be of interest to you: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/hot-lye-method.54671/

 

[earlene]

If you do use your SB, try to resist the temptation to keep it running all that time. It really does burn out the motor. They were never designed for extended use. Stirring with only intermittent pulsing for no more than 5 seconds at a time WILL give you good results and preserve the life of your SB. In other words, stir more, pulse with SB less and the result is the same with the soap, and your SB will last for years.

 

[penelopejane]

I’m pretty sure you can find lard in the supermarket in Ireland. We have it but it is expensive here. Look at the labels on the other packages around the tallow. It’s usually in a square block.

Tesco’s sell it : “Tescos everyday value lard”

 

[DeeAnna]

A "few drops" of essential oil is a waste of money -- it's not enough. With a hot process method and eucalyptus EO, I would try about 15 grams of EO per 500 grams of oils.

 

[Techie Joe]

Thanks Penelopejane, I looked all around the local tesco and spar and super value and they only have beef or vegetable lard. The butcher in the village says he'll keep some pig fat for me on Monday, so I'll be cooking it then.

Thanks DeeAnna, It says on the bottle to use up to 2% EO for skin applications like oils etc, so I was thinking between 6 and 12 ml for my 600g soapwedge. Perhaps the whole 10ml bottle would be enough.

Superfats Question...

My quantities make up 500g (1/2 quart approximately)
Tallow beef 250g
Olive oil 125g
Coconut 100g
Castor oil 25g

SoapCalc suggests to add superfat at 5% which is just 25g (0.9 oz)
There is only 125g (4.4oz) in a small yogurt carton so 25g doesn't seem much at all, a large tablespoon at most.
I know its a small batch, and I can double it if necessary, but is 25g enough?
And is yogurt right or should there be something else aswel?

I'm going to attempt the 10 minute hot process.

Proposed recipe

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I wouldn't do that process for now. You still need to cure your bars and all of that, so while it's interesting from a "let's have a look" point of view, I would suggest doing regular cold process to start off with.

 

[Kamahido]

I wouldn't do that process for now. You still need to cure your bars and all of that, so while it's interesting from a "let's have a look" point of view, I would suggest doing regular cold process to start off with.

I must agree with The Efficacious Gentleman on this one. Cold Process is the simplest of soap making processes. And Hot Process does indeed require a cure time.

 

[Techie Joe]

...... it will likely need to sit for several weeks anyway.

Any ideas about the superfat question?

 

[Kamahido]

Any ideas about the superfat question?

The soap calculator has already calculated the 5% into the oil amounts. Just use the amounts of oils, water and sodium hydroxide the calculator gave you and your recipe will be fine.

 

[Techie Joe]

The soap calculator has already calculated the 5% into the oil amounts. Just use the amounts of oils, water and sodium hydroxide the calculator gave you and your recipe will be fine.

Thanks, 25g it is.
Would you recommend I use just yogurt or is there something better?

 

[Kamahido]

Thanks, 25g it is.
Would you recommend I use just yogurt or is there something better?

I have heard of people using yogurt in their soap before. However as to what is better one might first ask the question of what it is you are going for. Certain additives are rather tricky to work with, and therefore require a great deal of skill and experience to use properly. Since I do not know your experience level with soap making or what your goals are I can't really answer that.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Not only can they be tricky to work with, but if you have only ever made soap with them then you don't truly know what they are bringing to the party. In that way soaping can be more like science than art - if you change two things to a recipe, how can you be sure how much each change changed the end result?

 

[earlene]

You can add the yogurt, but your 5% SF is ALREADY in the recipe without adding anything else. That's how lye calculators work. In other words, adding more fat makes it MORE THAN 5% SF.

So you have this recipe. Say you wanted the SF to be a different oil, maybe not even yogurt, but say 'emu' oil (pulling it out of thin air as an example). If you add the extra emu oil to make up 5% (which you need the calculator to figure out for you because otherwise you'd have to figure the SAP value in by hand, etc.) you would end up with a 10% SF. Do you understand what I mean?

In the reverse, you have this recipe and the lye calculator has already figured out how much oil to include to obtain a 5% SF, but you change your mind and want a ZERO% SF. What you could do is NOT put in 5% of the oils, BUT it's best to let the lye calculator figure all that out for you, by simply changing your formula to say 0% SF before you start. Then you are less likely to make a mistake.

Adding yogurt does increase your SF, but it also contains lactic acid which will increase your fluidity of the HP soap to a degree, which is why some HP soapers use yogurt at the end of the cook. How much it affects fluidity depends on how much of it you use and how much water your soap has lost or retained in the cooking process, as well as the temperature of the yogurt when you add it (cold yogurt added to hot soap batter, makes it thicken up right away.)

 

[Techie Joe]

Thank you earlene, that is very helpful to know that stuff now.
The main reason is to increase the fluidity after the cook, so that the soap can be poured into the moulds without many gaps.
So I will heat up some yogurt in a bowl-in-pot of water as I'm cooking the batch.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I would still strongly suggest not trying this particular hp method first of all. Normal hp if you must, but not this one.

 

[NsMar42111]

I'm with Efficacious Gentleman, don't start with this! The volcano is dangerous even to an experienced person! Don't do it! Just do it as a normal HP thing, don't stick blend that much. Still can do the yogurt and all. Stick blend until it looks like pudding then cover and wait and watch....

 

[Kamahido]

If

Thank you earlene, that is very helpful to know that stuff now.
The main reason is to increase the fluidity after the cook, so that the soap can be poured into the moulds without many gaps.
So I will heat up some yogurt in a bowl-in-pot of water as I'm cooking the batch.

If fluidity is all you are after I recommend you just use the traditional Cold Process method.

 

[Techie Joe]

Why not?
(and dangerous is not a reason)

 

[Serene]

Joe,

I think what is being recommended is that you start off with the easy stuff first. Once you have a few batches under your belt you can move on to the more complex stuff. Think on it as trying to run before you can walk. Baby steps.