I've Been Lyeing a Lot Lately, Part 3

Making Soap from Butcher Shop Trash

This is part three in a five part series on making homemade soap for personal use or sale.  If you want to view the earlier posts, use these links:

• Part One: A Brief History of Soapmaking
• Part Two: Rendering and Purifying the Tallow

Part Three: Making and Casting the Soap

In this part, I will explain how to turn your purified tallow into soap, through a process called saponification. By combining a strong alkali with some water and the tallow, you create an exothermic reaction that chemically alters the fat molecules into detergent.

I'm not going to go into the specifics of the chemistry that is going on here; it's really out-of-scope for this series.  If you want to know how saponification works, check out these links:

• Soap and Saponification: Preparation and Chemical Structure
• Wikipedia: Soap

For my soapmaking, I use a two-step process.  

First, I make a base soap that has no extra fat in it, no colorings or fragrances.  I make two different base soaps: lathery and not-so-lathery. The only difference is the addition of some white sugar to the lye mixture to make the base soap lathery. Since this soap does not contain extra fat (superfatting), in its raw form, it may be slightly drying or irritating to the skin.  The non-lathery formula of this base soap is excellent for use as a laundry detergent, or as the base soap in homemade liquid laundry detergent.

Once this soap has finished curing, I "re-batch" or "handmill" the soap.  It is at this point that I add additional fats to make the soap more moisturizing, and add colors and fragrances. During the second step is when I will place the soap into its final molding for storage or sale.

So, let's get on with making the base soap.  The next part in this series will deal with the handmilling process.

Tools you'll need:

• 100% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) lye, available at some farm supply stores or online
• 1 gallon of white vinegar, to neutralize the lye in case of spill
• Rubber gloves
• Safety goggles
• Crockpot
• Scale accurate to 0.1g for measuring lye and one accurate to 5g for oils (I use this one for oils, and this one for lye)
• Non-reactive container to weigh the lye
• Non-reactive container to mix lye
• Non-reactive tool to stir lye mixture
• pH test strips, either full range [0-14] or alkaline range [7-14], available at drug stores and aquarium stores
• Stick blender, preferably with stainless steel shaft (I melted my plastic one!)
• Heat-resistant container in which to cast the hot soap

WARNING: Lye is extremely caustic. You don't want to get any of it on your skin or in your eyes, so make sure you've got your skin and face protected by gloves and goggles. If you get any lye on your skin, immediately flush the area with white vinegar, then with lots of water to neutralize the lye and remove the vinegar. When mixing lye with water, the mixture will heat up quite a bit! Make sure you are using a non-reactive and heat-resistant container to mix in! During the soapmaking process, there is risk of what is called "the volcano." This soapy, bubbly mixture is extremely hot and can cause second and possibly third degree burns if you get it on your skin. Make sure you watch your soap carefully while it's cooking to avoid the volcano, and have cold water nearby in case any gets on your skin!

Preparing Your Recipe

For simplicity, I use the metric system for all my measurements.  It's just plain better when you're dealing with chemicals that can maim you.  Feel free to use whatever units you want, but I will use metric measurements here.

I will be using the following amounts of materials to make a base "lathery" soap:

• 1000.0 g beef tallow
• 380.0 g COLD distilled water
• 142.6 g lye 
• 10 g sugar (omit this if you don't want a lathery base soap)

If you want to use different amounts to make more or less soap, DO NOT just "scale" this recipe up or down.  Use the Soap Lye Calculator at soapcalc.net to get an accurate recipe.  The soap calculator does not have a field for the addition of sugar to improve lathering, so you can use 10g per kilogram of base oils.

Make the Soap

Weigh your ingredients.  Be careful.  Take your time to be precise. When working with the lye, make sure you are wearing gloves and eye protection!

Here's everything you'll need to have on-hand.  Make sure all of this stuff is ready to go so that you don't have to go digging.  There are parts of this process that happen quickly, so you may not have time to go looking for something later.

Add the sugar to the water and stir until dissolved. Then, slowly add the lye into the water. NEVER add water into the lye crystals! It can heat up and cause a steam explosion and spew highly concentrated lye into your face! Place the container that had your lye crystals in it into the sink and run lots and lots of water in it to dilute any remaning lye.

Pour the tallow into a cold crockpot.  If its solid, warm it gently in a sinkful of hot water until it liquefies. Slowly add the lye mixture to the oil.  You will see that it becomes cloudy. Place this container in the sink and also flush well with water.

Using the stick blender, blend the mixture until it reaches trace. With tallow, this can take some time.  In this batch, it took about 10 minutes. Trace is the stage at which the lye/tallow solution thickens to the consistency of runny yogurt, and when you remove the blender from it you will see that the liquid piles up on itself for a few moments.

Once you're at trace, cover the crockpot and put it on low. While you're waiting for it all to heat up and cook, line your temporary mold with wax paper for easy removal later. This batch took about 30 minutes to get to the next stage.

This stage is when the soap begins to cook and turn over on itself.  You can see the bubbles forming at the edge of the mixture.  This region will grow and darken in color as the mixture turns in on itself.  Once there is a ring of cooked soap about 1/4 to 1/2 inch all the way around, turn the crock pot up to high. Do not leave the crockpot unattended for very long!

Once the mixture has turned over, stir it down and allow it to cook for a few more minutes, then turn the crockpot off.

This stuff is extremely hot!  Treat it like molten lava!  It will burn the bejeesus out of you if you get it on your skin!







Now, test the pH. Take a small sample of your soap from the crockpot and wet it sightly with some water. Touch one of the pH strips to the wet soap and read the pH according to the package instructions.  Your soap is safe if it's pH lies between 8 and 9.  pH levels much higher than 9 can irritate the skin considerably.  If the pH is too high, your soap is lye-heavy and either needs additional fat to react with, or it needs time to cure.  If you follow this recipe precisely, you should wind up with a good soap.

Some people like to use the "zap test," but pH strips are more precise and you're not risking a chemical burn to your tongue.  However, if you don't have access to pH strips, I suppose the "zap test" is better than nothing.  If you do get zapped by a lye-heavy soap, I suggest swishing vinegar in your mouth to neutralize any lye that remains on your tongue to minimize any chemical burns.

Since this recipe is not superfatted, it will never reach the separation stage that you may see in other recipes.  Once the soap has reached an "applesauce" or "mashed potato" consistency, you can put it into your prepared mold.  Several times during the process, bang the mold on a hard surface to remove excess air.

Once you've transferred all the soap, set it aside to cool and harden.

Once the soap has cooled and solidified (several hours) remove it from the mold and cut it into bars. If you have trouble removing it from the mold, try placing it in the freezer for a few minutes to help the soap release.

Set your base soap aside to cure and harden for a few days, or until you're ready to begin making handmilled soap.












ALTERNATE ENDING: If you don't want to handmill and just want to use hot-process soap, before molding, add 30g of additioinal tallow to the mixture and stir it in completely. This will superfat the mixture and give it moisturizing properties.  If you want to add colors and fragrances, allow the soap to cool to about 160F, then add your colorants and fragrance oils and stir them in completely. Then proceed with molding and cutting.

Now, clean up your mess so your spouse doesn't kill you for tearing the kitchen up!

Stay Tuned!

In Part Four of this series, I will show how I grate the base soap and recombine it in molds to make a final product.

I've Been Lyeing a Lot Lately, Part 2

Making Soap from Butcher Shop Trash

This is part two in a five part series on making homemade soap for personal use or sale.  If you want to view the first post, you can find it here.

Part Two: Rendering and Purifying the Tallow

In order to make homemade soap, you need to have oils.  Many soapers use purchased oils in their soapmaking.  I am going for a more sustainable approach, so I have chosen to render the trimmings from my local butcher shop. If you don't want to bother with this step, you can purchase lard, tallow and many other vegetable-based oils at your local grocery.  If you choose not to make your own oils, you can move right on to Part Three.

Tools you'll need

• large pressure cooker or stock pot
• a second large pot to hold all the liquids
• a sieve or strainer to catch the solids
• thermometer with temperature probe
• cheesecloth or fine sackcloth
• fire extinguisher (hopefully you won't need this!)

Contact Your Local Butcher

If you're going to render your own fat for soapmaking, you'll need a source of meat trimmings. Large butchering operations usually have a specialized company come to pick up their waste.  On a large scale, it's worth it for them  to pick it up.  So calling a large grocery or large meat packing operation may not help.

We called our local Mom-and-Pop butcher and asked them what they did with all the meat trimmings.  They told me that they just put them in the garbage.  So, we asked if we could pick them up.  They told us the best days and times to stop by.

We swung by recently and picked up this bucket of meat trimmings. The butcher actually apologized for it only being half full, but told me that if we come back in a couple days, he will have a whole lot for us, since he's preparing a side of beef for a customer.

Sort the Mess, Load it Up, and Start Cooking

When our butcher is processing meat, they often toss little bits of paper or sections of plastic wrap into the bucket.  I don't gripe about it since I'm getting all this stuff for free.  You will find all manner of stuff in here.  I recently found an entire knee joint! As long as it's not foreign matter, you can use it all; bones, meat, fat, whatever. Its usually mostly beef, but I've found a fair amount of pork meat and trimmings in there, as well.  Since rendered pork fat (lard) and rendered beef fat (tallow) have very similar properties and saponification rates, it's OK that these are mixed at an unknown ratio.

I like to use my large 21-quart pressure canner to render the fat using a wet process.  If you don't have a large pressure cooker/canner, you can use a large stock pot.  It will just take longer to render the fat.  Since there is a lot of bone and meat mixed in with the fat, I can get a couple other useful products out of the trimmings, namely a meat/bone mix that I use as food for my dogs, and lots and lots of yummy, healthy stock.

I fill my pot about 3/4 full with meat trimmings, and then cover them by about an inch of water.

I then put it on the stove and cook it at 10psi for about three hours.  If you're using a pressure cooker, I don't recommend exceeding 10psi, which is what most pressure cookers are set to if you don't have selectable pressure. Pressure cooking this stuff at higher temperatures (and pressures) can lead to some discoloration of the fat.  It will still be perfectly usable, but your soap may not be a pure, clean white color. If you are not using a pressure cooker, cover the pot at keep it at a low boil until the bones are soft and break easily. This will take quite a long time (perhaps as long as 12-24 hours), which is why I use the pressure cooker to speed the process.

Make Dog Food

Once you're done cooking, take the pot off the stove and allow it to cool. You can speed this process by placing the pot in the sink and filling the sink with cold water, stirring both the "soup" and the sink water occasionally.  When the sink water gets hot, refill the sink.

Once the "soup" has cooled enough that you can put your finger into it without a trip to the Emergency Room, (150F-160F) pour it through a sieve into another pot that can hold all the liquid.  Spray some hot water over the solids and allow it to drain into the pot with the liquid.  This will get some additional fat off the solids. Put the pot with the liquid back into the sink to cool more.  While it's cooling, you can make your dog food.

There still will be some fat left in the solids you just strained out.  We've found that our dogs get "the runs" if there is too much fat in the dog food we make, so we sort through the solids, pulling out the large chunks of fat and bones that did not get soft enough.  We usually hand those harder bones to the dogs to keep them occupied while we sort through the meat. Once this is done, we pack the meat/bone stuff into baggies and freeze it.  Sometimes, we'll put some of it through the food processor with the softened bones to make a pâté-type dog food.   

Once you're done making a sticky mess of your hands, check on your liquids.  When they have cooled to around 130F, cover the liquids and place them in the refrigerator. They will need to stay there for a couple days to allow the fat to separate and harden. This cooling is extremely taxing on your refrigerator.  Don't be surprised if some of the stuff in there isn't as cold as it should be for a while.  Try to avoid opening the refrigerator as much as possible so the liquids can cool.

Now, clean up your mess so your spouse doesn't kill you for tearing the kitchen up!

Two Days Later...

Once the fat has solidified, it's time to complete the separation of the stock and the tallow. The fat should be bright white and hard to the touch.  Take it out of the refrigerator and remove the fat from the stock.  Put the pot with the stock in it back into the refrigerator for later use.

Place the fat in a large pot over medium heat. Make sure that pot is no more than 1/4 full of oil. Too much oil in the pot can result in boilover and possibly a grease fire. Place the thermometer probe into the oil.  Slowly increase the temperature of the oil to about 300F, stirring regularly. You must to do this with the lid off so that the water vapor can escape, so watch the oil carefully!

IMPORTANT! If there is any water in with the fat, it will boil out during this process and can pop loudly and splash hot oil all over the place.  This is why it is extremely important that you stir the oil regularly so that large pockets of water will not accumulate and flash to steam. CAUTION! Please take great care when heating oil of any kind in your kitchen. Grease fires destroy many homes and kill many people every year.  If you have a grease fire develop in a pot, put the lid on it to snuff the flames. Then take it off the heat until it cools down.  If the fire has gotten out of the pot, use the fire extinguisher, or call 911. Do NOT spray water on a grease fire or you will make it worse!

You will know when the oil is done when the gurgling sound it makes from the water boiling out stops and all you hear is the faint sizzle sound from the frying of the solids that are left in the oil. Then, take it off the heat and allow it to cool down to under 180F.

Line a suitable container with several layers of cheesecloth or sackcloth and pour the hot oil through it to remove any remaining solids.  Make sure the container can take the heat! You don't want it to melt and spill hot tallow everywhere!

Gather up the corners of the sackcloth and slowly pull it out of the container, straining out the solids. Cover the container with a tight fitting lid or a layer of plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for later use.

TIP: Some people will use a pressure canner to store their tallow in jars.  This fat is useful not only for soap, but for cooking as well.  It is a saturated fat, so be sure that you don't use a lot of it in your cooking! Canning the tallow allows you to make it shelf stable for a long period, so you can make your soap at a later time. I did some measurements, and it looks like 20 fluid ounces of beef tallow at about 100F measures out to just about 0.5kg.  So, if you want to make your recipes by metrics and store tallow in jars, only fill them to the 20oz level.  You will still need to weigh your oils before soaping, but at least you can get close.

Make Soup!

Now that you have your tallow, take the remaining stock and store it.  I prefer to pressure can my stock so that it is shelf stable.  If you don't have a pressure canner, you can freeze it.  This stock will be very bland in flavor because it has no added salt.  I always make my stock with no added salt.  I figure you can always add salt later when you need it, and you sure can't take it out very easily!

Now, clean up your mess so your spouse doesn't kill you for tearing the kitchen up!

Stay Tuned!

In Part Three of this series, I will show how I make the soap and cast it into blocks for later use in the handmilling process.

I've Been Lyeing a Lot Lately, Part 1

Making Soap from Butcher Shop Trash

You all know that I'm branching out and learning new skills that will help me when the Zombie Apocalypse comes.  One of the things that will become hard to get if/when the economy completely collapses is soap.

I've decided to do a series of blog posts to talk about the soapmaking process. It's just too complicated and long a process to do it all in one monster post. I will divide this post into five parts:

• A Brief History of Soapmaking (this post)
• Rendering and Purifying the Tallow
• Making and Casting the Soap
• Handmilling, Molding and Cutting
• Curing and Packaging

Part One: A Brief History of Soapmaking

For millenia, humans have been making soap from rendered animal fats and caustics. Many credit the Babylonians for being the first ones to discover the chemical process that turns fat into soap. Early recipies involved boiling meat trimmings in water with wood ash. Due to the imprecise nature of this process, early soaps were sometimes heavy or light on the lye, which could make the soap irritating or even prone to rancidity.

The Romans preferred to clean their bodies by rubbing down with oil and then scraping the oil off using a metal implement. In the first century A.D., the Romans began using soap for cleaning tasks, but it was not generally used for bathing, most likely because of the imprecision of the recipe that could often result in a lye heavy soap that was irritating to the skin.

Between the 5th and 15th centuries A.D., a period often referred to as the Middle Ages, the use of soap for bathing was extremely rare. In fact, personal hygiene was essentially non-existent during this period of 1000 years. This lack of hygiene is often cited as the primary reason that there were so many plagues and diseases that prevented humans from progressing.

It was common practice to have open sewers running through the streets, and people would often pour human waste into them from a window above.  Clearly, sanitation and hygiene weren't a big concern.

It wasn't until the late 1700s that soapmaking began to evolve significantly. Between the 1790s and the 1820s, the French discovered the precise relationship between fats and alkali in soap, which brought soapmaking into the modern era. In the mid 1800s, soap diverged into separate products for bathing and laundry.

Since the bathing soaps were no longer as caustic as they once were, personal hygiene took great leaps forward.  I find it really funny, however, that the French made these discoveries, and they still smell bad to this day.

In the 1930s, the development of synthetic detergents sounded the death knell for fat/lye soaps. Synthetic detergents could be made more cheaply, and in some cases could outperform fat/lye soaps of the time. Since then, almost all commercial personal and laundry cleaning products available in the U.S. have been made from these synthetic detergents.

We have been trained by the commercial interests that fat/lye soap is "bad." They often refer to the caustic nature of fat/lye soaps. That's true, but only if you're using a recipe from 1776. What they fail to tell us is that applying a little modern chemistry and by using accurate measurement devices, modern fat/lye soap is often superior to many of the synthetic soaps.

They don't want us to make our own; they want us to buy, buy, buy from them.

Why Make Soap?

I want to be more self-sufficient.  I want to learn how to make things that I need in an everyday situation so that I am not dependent on the infrastructure of our country.  I know this is a bunch of "doomsday prepper" talk, but I'd rather have the knowledge and not need it, than to need it and not have the knowledge.

Linda and I got a great deal on some pork roasts recently.  I trimmed all the fat off and cut out the bone. we gave the bone to the dogs.  I ran the meat through our meat grinder and froze the lean ground pork. At that point, I decided to render the fat and try to make soap with it.

After doing some research, I found a wonderful resource at soapcalc.net. On this web site is a tool that helps you calculate the proper amount of lye and water to safely make soap.

So, I obtained some lye and made soap.  It was wonderful!  It felt great! It cleans amazingly well! It didn't lather very well, but that was because it was made from 100% lard.

At that point, I was bitten.  I was really excited about having been able to make use of 100% of those pork roasts.  In the past, we always threw out the fat since we had no use for it. Now, I can make a useful product out of waste material!

Eww! Lard? Yuck!

Many people who have gotten into homemade soapmaking have decided that the use of animal oils is "yucky." Instead, they go out and purchase vegetable oils that can sometimes be very expensive so that they can claim that their soaps have these exotic ingredients.  Shea butter, cocoa butter, coconut oil, and palm oils are some of the more common.  I've looked in the store at these products, and the only one I'm willing to buy is coconut oil, since its price is more reasonable. It greatly contributes to the lathering capability when mixed 1:1 with tallow or lard.

Since I intend to use these products on my skin, I think that the use of an animal oil is more compatible with my biochemistry than that of a vegetable oil.  I make soap from cows and pigs. Those are both mammals.  I'm a mammal. I have a whole lot more in common biochemically with pigs and cows than I do a palm tree.  So I choose to use animal oils. They make a wonderful soap that cleans well and conditions the skin.

I can get my raw materials for free; the butcher shop will give me their meat trimmings that they would have otherwise thrown into the garbage.  So, not only am I making a soap that is more compatible with human physiology, I am making use of what would have otherwise gone to a landfill.  That's a far more sustainable process than importing exotic oils from all over the world.  I get mine about a mile from my house.

Stay Tuned!

In Part Two of this series, I will show how I render butcher shop waste into tallow, beef stock and dog food.