Beautiful sunday to cut Pinewood Tallow soap….
Buying “fancy” soap is expensive. So why not make it yourself. This way you can control the ingredients and source them to your liking + it’s 837% cheaper.
After 6 weeks of curing my tallow soap is done! This is a cold process cured soap(which I do find makes for a harder more dense longer lasting soap) . This batch made 18 bars. Or one years of soap for basically free.
PH came out to 10.20 which I’m happy with. I typically aim for 10.
My base recipe is;
44 oz. tallow (any kind you like, I used beef tallow)
12 oz. pine bark (ground fine, coffee grinder works amazing)
12 oz. lye ( I use white ash lye (ph 13.5) )
32 oz. cold well water (rain water works great also)
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Melt the tallow in the crockpot.
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Once the fat is nearly all melted, carefully measure the lye.
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In an area with good ventilation, carefully stir the lye into the measured water. ALWAYS add the lye to the water– do NOT add the water to the lye, as it can result in a volcano-like reaction.
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Stir this lye/water mixture until it has dissolved and let it sit for a few minutes. There will be a chemical reaction between the lye and water, and the water will become very hot, so be careful handling the container.
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Place the melted tallow in the crockpot (if it’s not already there), and slowly stir the lye/water mixture in.
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While stirring, proceed to blend the tallow, lye, and water until you reach trace. Trace is when the mixture turns to a pudding-like consistency and holds its shape when you drip a bit on top. You can use an immersion blender or stand blender if you’d like also.
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Now put the lid on the crockpot, set it on LOW, and allow it to cook for 45-60 minutes. It will bubble and froth, which is fine. Just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t attempt to bubble out of the pot. If it attempts an escape, just stir it back down.
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Pour into mold and let cure for MIN weeks. The longer you wait. The harder the bar.
Let’s see your last batch!
Note:
To make lye using the leeching method you pour a 50/50 mix of hardwood ashes and water into pale, let sit for 4 hrs, bring mix to a boil for 45 mins then let cool and ashes fall to the bottom of the pale.
The lye will sit on top of the water, simply scoop it off. It should be a dark brown in colour.
by FranksFarmstead
20 Comments
Excuse me if I’m asking a stupid question here, I probably am. How does it not smell like beef?
Thank you for sharing your experience and recipe
What do you add the pine bark dust ?
If this is cold processed how do you define hot processed? I’ve always used cold process soap to mean it’s not heated during or after trace, and hot process to mean what you’ve described here, but maybe I’ve misunderstood.
Nice!! Thanks for sharing the recipe. I saw jars of beef tallow at our local Costco.
Bad math. But ok.
What’s your recipe?
Editing to say, never mind. I see your recipe. 🌹
No cost? Fight club style?
what is the pH measuring tool you use? 👀
Do you sell??? I don’t have the spoons to make my own soap but would love to buy some tallow soap!
Its not for free. Instruments, ingredients, heat, power, a house to be in..
Also time. Take your salary and count the money per hour and hours spent doing the soap.
Say you earn something like 4-5 grand a month that would be like 30 dollars per hour.
It’s still very likely to cost less, and if you enjoy the process that’s a neat benefit. But it’s not 0 $.
I’m going to try this with purchased ingredients first, I think. Wife and I are trying to make some lye from wood ash from our fireplace and it doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe we have to start with more purely refined resources first…
This is a super cool project! I have never thought to use pine bark this way, I love it. I have lots of extra tallow and I think this would make great gifts. Thank you for a creative and fun idea.
This is dope. Sure beats the hell out of my $9 bars of Dr Squatch 🙁
Very cool, although I will continue to buy the wonderful soaps created by the artisans in my area; it is way too much work for me, and I would absolutely have some kind of accident with the lye!
I asked a local butcher a while back if they sold tallow and they got pissed I even asked! Needless to say I don’t go there anymore!
After you make lye, do you dry it out before use?
Is there such thing as making soap w/o lye?
My mom makes her own soap. She uses lard in hers.
I read this as soup and I was SO confused