Wanna talk Canola?

[scrubbie]

Wanna talk Canola? But I want Canola HO! I cant find any organic HO. Whats the deal? Im trying to see how high i can go. With it. On soap calc, there is an option for Canola HO. I want some! I want to hedge against the olive oil world wide shortage of Olive oil. If you dont know here is an article.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...9297.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
Also when I did my soapmaker 3 calcualtions I gasped at the price per ounce. So, lets talk CANOLA!

 

[judymoody]

Rice Bran would be a better option than canola as a sub for olive oil.

I have no idea where you'd find the HO canola. Soapers' Choice doesn't carry it.

The regular canola I'd keep at 10% or less of my recipe.

 

[Kansas Farm Girl]

I have never seen HO canola, but regular is available in the grocery stores. It seems to have an issue with DOS though if too high a %, as does soy, at least in my experience.

 

[CaliChan]

:/ isn't canola a GMO?
I always use lard when in not soaping with olive... were that link for the single oil experiment??
Canola made the worst looking bar

 

[LunaLion]

I've never tried making an olive free batch, but if I can successfully avoid coconut, I'm going to. Guess I'll have to add olive free to my list!

 

[Marilyna]

I don't know what canola HO is. I do successfully use canola at 16% in my recipe (along with soybean at 16%). No DOS! I think it must depend on what you're using it with.

 

[elizmar2006]

Thank you for posting the article. I'm new to soap making so it was interesting to read and have to think of soap making from more of a business prospective. One thing that worried me in the article was the mention that olive oils can be cut with other ingredients and sold as pure or 100%.
This worries me because of always being told I needed to know exactly the types of oils I am using to get a correct lye calculation. Also in my reading I saw a lot of tips that using the lower grade 100% olive oils was good because it was cheaper but still had the conditioning properties.
How do you as soapers make sure 100% means 100% but still not break the bank? Any recommendations?

 

[sistrum]

When I'm forced to buy a new brand of olive oil I just put a jar of it in the fridge, olive oil will go almost solid at cold temps, if it has other oils it won't. A while back a lot of big name olive oil company's got busted for doing this. Hopefully they learned their lesson but I still check every time.

 

[elizmar2006]

Great tip! I never knew. My sister for Christmas made an herb infused olive oil that I keep in the fridge. She bought the oil from a market in one of those great big containers to save money. The oil hardens but has a layer on the top that stays liquid. I'm sure it's perfectly fine for cooking but now I'll have to do more research.

I made my first batch of soap 2 weeks ago. I used the olive oil I had on hand to make a 100% olive oil soap. I had extra oil when measuring and put it in the fridge so I could cook with it later. It did not turn solid at all! Got a little thicker but nothing like the oil in my sisters bottle. I'll have to test this again. Maybe I did not leave the oil in the fridge long enough.

Now I'm going to have to wonder what kind of soap I actually made. The bottle said 100% and I trusted the market where I got it from.

So much new information!

 

[sistrum]

You sisters sounds fine that's how it should look, not solid but kinda half and half, yours on the other hand ????? Try over night.

 

[elizmar2006]

Olive oil in the fridge now! I did some more research and found some great articles on olive oil and the issue of false labeling. It turns out the market I trusted was on the fraud list.
For cooking purposes I just want a good oil. I would have no issue if it's a mixed oil, i even mix oils on my own to help with different issues in cooking. But if I buy something with the understanding it's one thing and I later find out it was false... Well I'm mad. What if im allergic to what the oil is being cut with? That was even some of the articles/ blogs I read. People using olive oil and thinking they were allergic because of reactions they had. They found out later they were allergic to what the olive oil was being mixed with.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm sorry. I did not mean to make this post about olive oil fraud. However I'm thankful for the post and link because it truly educated me today.

 

[Maythorn]

I had a less than great experience with canola oil. Between milk and not gelling the batch, combined with only 9% canola and 26% olive as the total liquid oil at 35% the bars were just too soft.

 

[whitetulips]

What happens if you put the whole container of olive oil in the fridge. I forgot that you said "a jar" and put the whole thing in there to see if it thickened. It basically looks like lemon lime gatorade with lots of specks and some thickness.:???:

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Here's my Single Oil Soap Experiment blog post:
http://alchemyandashes.blogspot.com/2013/03/single-oil-soap-experiment-phase-one.html
Canola wasn't the worst (I hated Grapeseed...ugh!)...but it did have a strong odor, so I wouldn't use it more than 20%. Also, my experiment is only 3 weeks old, so I can't speak for how prone it is to rancidity yet.
You can check out http://www.zensoaps.com/singleoil.htm - her result after 6 months with Canola was DOS.
Just something to consider...

 

[whitetulips]

Ok, almost the whole container of olive oil IS thick. It looks like a nice container of thick lemonade. Boy would I be disappointed if I took a sip of that thick oil. I guess it's truly olive oil then.

 

[kayjay]

Ugg...Didn't know canola caused DOS. I just made a bunch of soap with it because of the conditioning properties. I used it at 18%. I made sure the Linoleic/Linolenic totals were less than 15. I read that was important for reducing the chance of DOS on another forum. Is my soap doomed you think?

 

[Marilyna]

Kayjay,

I do use 16% in all my soaps (plus 16% of soy, which is also supposed to cause DOS), and don't have problems with DOS. Maybe yours will be just fine.

 

[AlchemyandAshes]

Ugg...Didn't know canola caused DOS. I just made a bunch of soap with it because of the conditioning properties. I used it at 18%. I made sure the Linoleic/Linolenic totals were less than 15. I read that was important for reducing the chance of DOS on another forum. Is my soap doomed you think?

You are correct in working with the Linoleic/Linolenic percentages...that is an important part of the puzzle. Just because you used Canola doesn't mean your soap is "doomed"...there is more to the story of rancidity/DOS than just the oil you soap...how old the oil is, what other oils are in the formula, gelling/not gelling (IMO - not a proven fact), curing conditions, etc
As long as you aren't selling your soaps, I wouldn't worry about it yet. Use those bars as your experimentation bars...see how they hold up. You may be just fine at 18%.

 

[Miz Jenny]

I mostly use canola oil. Don't love the color of olive oil, but I do use it occasionally, especially for totally organic bars. I use sweet almond oil for one recipe and really love it.

 

[kayjay]

Thanks for the advice. I do plan to sell my soaps eventually. I really hope the 18% Canola (also olive, palm, CO & castor) soap holds up because it's my favorite bar so far. Y'all have given me hope. I'm still trying to find that perfect recipe: not too drying, not too soft and a long shelf life.