The dilemma I am trying to resolve might sound ridiculous. It boils down to this: do I go for Palmitic 13 + Stearic 18, or Palmitic 7 + Stearic 27. Hum.
Nearly every discussion of palmitic and stearic lumps them together. The difference between them is explained in terms of shorter or longer acid chains. Which does not get me far.
Deeanna suggested that for her 30-35 for P and S combined was good. For oleic she felt that between 40 and 50 was good.
Now, FACT: for vegetarian, no-palmists that sets the bar VERY high.
A no-palm vegetarian like me can get oodles of stearic from Soya wax. That's not a problem. We can also get oodles of oleic from high oleic sunflower. Not a problem either. (Those are just examples of a general no-problem area). The problem as I understand it is the palmitic. I have no Cartesian knowledge of palmitic but a Baconian inductive method pleads strongly for its importance. I have yet to read a carnivore complain about pig tallow soap. On the contrary, they rave about it. Always. As for the palm oil fans, they are legion. A bit defensively snippety but delighted with their soap. Also, more Baconian evidence. Someone quite well known (Kenna?) made a series of single-oil soaps. She wasn't very impressed with any of them, except sweet almond oil. In her opinion, the sweet almond oil soap gave a nice foamy lather and was gentle. And her office mates all agreed with her. Sweet almond won the competition hands down. Now, sweet almond has a nice dose of oleic, no lauric or myristic and no stearic. The only place those bubbles can have come from was the palmitic. Also, someone on my French facebook group also raves about the bubbliness and creaminess of her very high Almond oil soap.
I probably should add that I'm a 'no-palm, vegetarian, low-coco' person. But many on this list are low-coco.
I also have some low-level Baconian evidence in favour of palmitic from my own soap. Which is bubbly, and definitely gentle and a nice lather. (Though it actually takes ages to get there) And I have all the additives (aloe/SL/CA/sugar). My suspicion, however, is that the bubbliness, creaminess of my lather is not the best in world (I'd lose against the lard people any day).
I hope someone doesn't just pipe in with "try the two and see which you like" because I am actually interested in understanding the difference between palmitic and stearic. And I only make soap at the very most once a week. And I like to master-batch. And, as I say, the Cartesian in me is just curious.
When I say that Deeanna's nice soap desiderata set the bar high for people like me, I could point out that getting our P/S up to the bar of 30 definitely brings our oleic down to the bottom of that scale (40).
So, am I right in thinking that Palmitic 7+Stearic 27 (34), actually loses against Palmitic 13+Stearic 18 (31)? In both cases, oleic is down to 40. I did some searches on the soapmakingfriend recipes database and they seem to confirm that for people in my category of the population there is no point in hoping to get P/S in the 30-35 range and Oleic any higher than 40 in the 40-50 range. Sorry. Long. Boring? Thank you for your thoughts...
Nearly every discussion of palmitic and stearic lumps them together. The difference between them is explained in terms of shorter or longer acid chains. Which does not get me far.
Deeanna suggested that for her 30-35 for P and S combined was good. For oleic she felt that between 40 and 50 was good.
Now, FACT: for vegetarian, no-palmists that sets the bar VERY high.
A no-palm vegetarian like me can get oodles of stearic from Soya wax. That's not a problem. We can also get oodles of oleic from high oleic sunflower. Not a problem either. (Those are just examples of a general no-problem area). The problem as I understand it is the palmitic. I have no Cartesian knowledge of palmitic but a Baconian inductive method pleads strongly for its importance. I have yet to read a carnivore complain about pig tallow soap. On the contrary, they rave about it. Always. As for the palm oil fans, they are legion. A bit defensively snippety but delighted with their soap. Also, more Baconian evidence. Someone quite well known (Kenna?) made a series of single-oil soaps. She wasn't very impressed with any of them, except sweet almond oil. In her opinion, the sweet almond oil soap gave a nice foamy lather and was gentle. And her office mates all agreed with her. Sweet almond won the competition hands down. Now, sweet almond has a nice dose of oleic, no lauric or myristic and no stearic. The only place those bubbles can have come from was the palmitic. Also, someone on my French facebook group also raves about the bubbliness and creaminess of her very high Almond oil soap.
I probably should add that I'm a 'no-palm, vegetarian, low-coco' person. But many on this list are low-coco.
I also have some low-level Baconian evidence in favour of palmitic from my own soap. Which is bubbly, and definitely gentle and a nice lather. (Though it actually takes ages to get there) And I have all the additives (aloe/SL/CA/sugar). My suspicion, however, is that the bubbliness, creaminess of my lather is not the best in world (I'd lose against the lard people any day).
I hope someone doesn't just pipe in with "try the two and see which you like" because I am actually interested in understanding the difference between palmitic and stearic. And I only make soap at the very most once a week. And I like to master-batch. And, as I say, the Cartesian in me is just curious.
When I say that Deeanna's nice soap desiderata set the bar high for people like me, I could point out that getting our P/S up to the bar of 30 definitely brings our oleic down to the bottom of that scale (40).
So, am I right in thinking that Palmitic 7+Stearic 27 (34), actually loses against Palmitic 13+Stearic 18 (31)? In both cases, oleic is down to 40. I did some searches on the soapmakingfriend recipes database and they seem to confirm that for people in my category of the population there is no point in hoping to get P/S in the 30-35 range and Oleic any higher than 40 in the 40-50 range. Sorry. Long. Boring? Thank you for your thoughts...
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