Tallow in soap

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new12soap,
Thanks for the link!
I wonder if the reason mine doesn't get DOS is the BHA & BHT that are in the meat shortening? According to this paper, BHT is an effective preservative.
 
I noticed that the lable on the generic Crisco oil shortening has different ingredients than the brand Crisco oil shortening. I want to say that the Crisco had palm oil listed as an ingredient, but the generic did not. I've read other soapers say that they like the generics better than the Crisco brand.
 
I have had some generic shortening that had tallow but no palm. I don't remember seeing any generic shortening that had palm in it. I have seen shortening in Whole Foods that was palm oil only. I think that you would want to check the list of ingredients in the generic and look compare to those listed in the calculators.
 
After reading some posts about GV shortening (beef tallow & ?) I tried substituting in for the lard in my recipe. I ran it though Soapcalc and it looked fine but the soap was very sticky and hard to un-mold. It cured out ok but is ugly due to all the stickiness. Anyone else had similar problems? I made it twice and got the same result both times.
 
I have used that tallow shortening in some recipes and they came out really nice. It actually helped get my numbers up on the hardness scale. I do wish that I could find plain tallow for sale around here. I tried rendering beef tallow myself and overall was an icky experience!!! I don't think I could ever do it again.
 
http://www.soaperschoice.com/cgi-so...2_11835&hits_seen=150&query_price_low_range=0

in answer to the original poster, no, tallow from soaper's choice does not have to be refrigerated, although it will never hurt any oils or butters to do so.

AngelMomma, I am not sure how you rendered your tallow, but I got some beef fat from the butcher and rendered it myself and found it a very easy process, if a bit time consuming. I just cut it up fine, put it in a pot of cold water, brought it to a simmer and let it go a while, then hit it with the stickblender to break up the stubborn chunks, let it simmer a little more, then took it off the heat, chilled it, popped out the disk and rinsed it off, then broke it up and put it into the pot with fresh cold water and melted it again. After I chilled it that time, I popped out the big disk, rinsed it, and had a beautiful clean white chunk of tallow. Makes gorgeous soap, too!
 
I have seen the generic shortening that contains tallow and have used it, using beef tallow on SoapCalc. I have never purchased straight tallow, the tallow I use is some that I rendered myself, using a method very similar to new12soap's method. I love tallow soap. Some of my batches are 60% tallow. None are slimy or drying or sticky. I will use tallow every chance I get. I am almost out of tallow now and hoarding the little bit I have left.
 
My husband tried to render beef tallow for my soap and it is an experience we don't want to try again. I unmolded at 24 hours as I always do with the first batch and waited a few hours longer for the second batch. I have since gone back to my old standby recipe and it is not sticky at all.
 
I've rendered tallow successfully before and really love the soap it makes, so I've had another batch going in the crock pot out in the garage. This morning I found I had left the pot on overnight by accident, and somehow it boiled over. The whole corner of my garage, benchtop, machinery, tools, wall, floor, everything for several feet around is covered with fat and water :oops: I just turned off the pot and went to work. I'm going to have to deal with the mess when I get home tonight, ugh. :( :(
 
Ack, I am sorry to hear about your mess Timber! It sounds like a lousy way to spend your evening.
 

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