Substitute for Lard

[Jean]

Help!! I am in the middle of making soap and I don't have enough lard, I only have 7.25 oz.

I don't have any Palm Oil either. What could I use for a substitute?

Here is my recipe

Palm Kernel 15.84 oz.
Lard 11.04 oz.
Olive Oil 6.72 oz.
Crisco 6.72 oz.
Safflower 4.8 oz.
Castor Oil 2.88

Paul, this is your recipe.
Jean

 

[Guest]

I agree that palm would be the likely substitute. And tallow is very similar to lard, but you're not likely to have any of that on hand either. After that I'd look to the other oils with high oleic and palmitic. That would be avocado, cocoa butter and rice bran oil. RBO looks like the best choice to me, more conditioning than lard, less creamy lather, but overall similar fatty acid line-up. Or avocado if you don't have RBO.

 

[Jean]

Okay, I do have RBO so I will just add what I need to the 7.25 oz. of lard to make a total of 11.04 oz. or do I need to not use the lard at all and use 11.04 oz. of RBO?
Thanks, Jean

 

[Guest]

You need to run whatever you decide to do through SoapCalc or other lye calculator as it is unlikely they will have the same SAP factor. You'll need to re-figure your whole recipe to get a new lye amount.

 

[cdwinsby]

Shea butter has very similar soaping properties to lard. Another option to think about would be to just increase the olive oil since olive oil always seems to make a surprisingly hard soap.

I would definately still use the lard but just increase the RBO or olive oil or add in shea butter or cocoa butter. Then run it through the SoapCalc to get the right lye amounts.

 

[Jean]

Okay, I was afraid you were going to say that. So guess I'd better put things on hold until I get this figured out. I do have some cocoa butter so I will check it out while I am at it.
Thanks so much!
Jean

 

[dragonfly princess]

I ran out of lard on my last recipe and used unrefined shea to make up for what I was missing. The soap came out wonderful! No worries!

 

[Lane]

Yup! Shea always works for me!

 

[Jean]

Thanks to all of you. I didn't have any shea either, so I upped my olive oil and added 4 oz. of cocoa butter. It is in the mold and looking good. I tried the "hearts' again, and they did okay this time.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Must see Jean. I'm going to try your heart swirl this weekend on a rose/gardenia scented batch.

Paul :wink:

 

[Jean]

Paul, I'll be anxious to hear or see how yours turns out, it sounds really nice. I don't think I colored my green layer dark enough, which is the top layer, because right now the hearts which are done in white aren't showing up very good. I am hoping the color will get a tad bit darker as it cures. I'll post a picture when I get it out of the mold.
Jean

 

[Guest]

Just a note - even though the soap calcs don't show it - Lard adds to the hardness of your bars considerably and when you switch it out - you might notice a difference. I would go for Olive over Rice Bran because it cures hard. Rice Bran doesn't even though it shares many properties with Olive.