Tallow blend soaps: There was a time when soaps were synonymous with beef tallow. Now, things have changed and tallow is no more the only fat ingredient in the soap making industry. Several blends of tallow soaps have arrived in the market, thanks to innovative discoveries on the various uses of essential and vegetable oils. This article will offer a few tallow blend soap recipes that are commonly used by soapers. The first three of these recipes were created by a popular soaper named Kathy Miller.

1. Tallow Blend Soap: The best tallow for this soap is freshly rendered tallow. You can render tallow at your home by melting it and then removing the impurities. Once rendered, you can blend it with lard and use it in soap making. The ingredients for this recipe are:

• 44 oz of beef tallow
• 20 oz olive oil
• 20 oz of coconut oil
• 32 oz of very cold water
• 12 oz lye crystals
• some lard fat for blending with tallow

As mentioned earlier, blend lard and tallow and add coconut oil to it for lather. Add olive oil to reduce the harshness and make the soap mild. If you want a milder bar in order to add fragrance oils, add 2 more ounces of water. The resulting soap will have the best qualities of all the ingredients – lather, creaminess, cleaning ability and a soft touch on skin.

2. Blended soap with tallow (without coconut): Tallow works well with castor oil too. This soap recipe uses olive and castor oil to replace the effect of coconut oil. Though this has a different lather than what coconut provides, it is smooth, silky and soothing to the skin. It is excellent for shaving (legs and face) and even soybean oil can replace olive oil and castor oil. To make this soap, you need:

• 64 oz of tallow  (you can use tallow and cottonseed blend)
• 24 oz olive oil
• 4 oz of castor oil
• 32 oz of cold water
• 12 oz of lye crystals

3. Blended soap with tallow (with coconut): This is the best tallow blend soap you can ever make. Tallow will give your soap hardness, while the coconut ingredient will bring forth the froth. Add some olive oil and you make a perfect soap with good cleansing and conditioning properties. The ingredients needed for the soap are:

• 45 oz of tallow
• 20 oz of olive oil
• 20 oz of coconut oil
• 32 oz of cold water
• 12 oz of lye crystals

This is almost similar to the first recipe, except that there you make a blend of tallow and lard for extra hardness and effect.

4. Tallow tea blend soap: Created by Lorien Carney, this soap recipe has both tallow and lard as separate ingredients. Added to this are two tea bags from Nutcracker sweet. The ingredients for this recipe:

• 16 oz of lard
• 16 oz of tallow
• 4.45 oz of lye
• 1 5/6 cups of water
• 2 celestial seasonings Nutcracker Sweet tea bags

Make soap using the usual method – prepare lye water and then pour it into the fat. Then, when you see a thick trace forming, add the tea to the mixture and pour into a suitable mold. The soap, when formed, is pink in color with specks of green and brown. It offers good lather and fair cleaning abilities.

Like all homemade, do-it-yourself-stuff, soap making too has its share of difficulties. Before venturing into the difficulties realm, let’s take a look at what saponification exactly means.

Saponification process: Saponification is the chemical term for the reaction between lye and fat and the formation of soap. When animal fat meets an alkali, the alkali first splits the fat into two major parts – fatty acids and glycerin. After this, the sodium are potassium part of the alkali joins with the fatty acid part (of animal fat) to form a potassium or sodium salt – which is nothing but soap. From this you can gather that the constituent of alkali is a decisive factor in determining the quality, texture and nature of your soap. Soap making’s favorite alkali is lye or liquid potash or sodium hydroxide. You can use whichever is convenient for you, but you need to be careful about the strength and amount of lye solution you use. This is because lye is one of the first bottlenecks faced by soap makers:

1. Strength of lye: The strength of your lye solution determines the nature and solidity/liquidity of your soap. Inappropriate quantity or low/high strength of your lye solution can mean problems like – curdling of mixture, grainy soap, spongy soap, soap with air bubbles,  lye pockets in soap etc. To avoid this, the colonists used a method. To determine if the strength of their lye solution is perfect, they let a potato or egg float on the lye water. If the object floated with specified amount of its surface above the lye solution, it was declared as a fit solution for soap making. To weaken the strength of a strong solution, water was added. To increase strength, the lye water was poured into the ash hopper once again.

Today, you need not make things floppy with potatoes or eggs. There are lye calculators to determine the strength of your lye solution. You can use them after you mix lye with water. You can follow the recipe letter for letter and make your lye perfect without the need to check with a calculator.

2. No saponification: Happens with almost all first-time soap makers. The reason can be many things – excess water, insufficient lye, not enough stirring, rancid tallow, high amount of polyunsaturated fats in tallow etc. Check your ingredients if you do not see any trace of soap formation.

3. Rancid tallow: Beef tallow can go rancid if not well kept. It always better to go for grass fed beef and then render it on your own than opt for a packaged suet. A store-sold packaged suet is processed beef fat which may not contain the necessary elements to help in soap formation. It is ideal as a bird feed only. In order to get better soaps, order your beef from your butcher and render it into tallow yourself. Ensure that it is cleansed of impurities and store it in appropriate ways to prevent rancidity.

4. Unusual soaps: Sometimes the end result maybe a warped or a freckled or a mottled soap. Your soap may carry unwanted colors (without you coloring it) and smell rancid. Sometimes air bubbles may abound in the soap mixture or a small amount of white powder may stay on top. All these are common problems and can be troubleshooted if you double-check  the quality, strength and amount of ingredients you use. Air bubbles happen when you stir too long or whip while stirring. A warped soap means you have not followed the right drying process. Mottled look is a result of uneven stirring or temperature changes. A rancid smell occurs when you add too much fat and too little lye.

5. Coloring and scent: Some may add too much scent to their soaps. This is not required. Few drops of essential oils or perfumes (approved ones) can do the trick. See to it that you get the right color and scent you require. A very strong smell can often be a source of headaches and migraines. So, ensure you use the appropriate amount of perfume suitable for your body.

Amateur soap makers are at a loss for soap recipes. With almost everyone around taking up soap making, it is hard to find good old basic soap recipes in the local library or bookstores. Sure, the Internet is a great source, but there again, people hardly get to find a recipe that requires the most basic of ingredients and demands the shortest of our time. This article will detail a step-by-step process on what all you need to make a very basic soap using a basic method of tallow soap making.

Basic method of tallow soap making: This basic method has been referred by Hulda Clarkis in the book, The Cure For All Diseases. To make a basic soap, you would need the following ingredients:

• A small plastic dishpan
• A glass or enamel 2 quart sauce pan
• 12 ounces of lye (Sodium Hydroxide)
• 3 pounds of fresh, rendered beef tallow
• plastic gloves and goggles
• gallons of very cold water
• wooden blender or any other plastic stirring equipment

1. Prepare the previous night: If you have bought suet from your butcher, you can render it the previous evening and refrigerate it overnight so that your tallow is fresh and ready for soap making the next morning. Also refrigerate water overnight to freezing temperatures. You would need very cold water in order to reduce the heat of lye solution.

2. Lye solution: Pour 3 cups of cold water into the 2-quart sauce pan and slowly add lye to the water. Have your protective covering (gloves and goggles) on and it is better if you make this lye preparation outside your house. This is because lye has the habit of spoiling places. Keep it out of reach of children too. Never breathe in the vapor or lean over the container. Since the mixture will be very hot, allow it to cool for at least one hour in a safe place.

3. Tallow preparation: Meanwhile, unwrap your tallow and allow it to melt in the dishpan. Then, slowly mix it thoroughly with lye by pouring lye into tallow. Stir the mixture for at least 15 minutes until you get the texture of a thick pudding.

4. Allow it to cool: Let the mixture set till next morning. When cooled, the soap would have become solid and you can then cut it into bars and package it for sale or as a gift.

5. Liquid soap: You can make liquid soap out of this basic soap. All you need to do is, cut the bars into small chips, dissolve them in enough hot water and add citric acid to balance the pH value. This is to reduce the harshness of the soap on your skin. Once done with mixing, allow the mixture to cool. The result will be a liquid soap which you can use for cleaning.

Basic soap making: As mentioned earlier, start with basic soap making. Get ready all your ingredients: 64 oz beef tallow, 24 oz distilled water and 8.5 oz lye. Get all your equipments ready. You would definitely need the following: large stainless steel pot, two heavy plastic pitchers, goggles and gloves, blender, thermometer, soap molds and saran wrap.

1. Start with tallow: Melt the beef tallow you have in the stainless steel pot. Remember to render the tallow before including it in the soap recipe. Half-done or improperly-done tallow would taste bad or go rancid quickly. So, keep your tallow fresh and perfect for soap making. Since tallow has a high smoke point, you need to boil it well to melt it.

2. Work with lye and water: Measure water in one of your pitchers. It is better to use cold, distilled water as cold water would reduce the heat of the lye solution. Once the lye is measured and ready in another pitcher, slowly pour the lye into water. Do this only after wearing goggles and gloves. Better to keep this mixing out of your house as lye, when split, can damage your home walls and floor. It is always recommended to use neoprene gloves. Stir the lye water until it is clear and all lye crystals have dissolved into the water.

3. Pour lye into tallow: Once the lye solution is ready, pour this mixture into melted tallow. Mix it with a blender till it reaches trace stage. You can know more on how to identify trace formation in this blog.

4. Pour soap mixture into molds: After trace formation, pour the soap mixture into molds and cover them with saran wrap. Let the molds sit for about 24 hours. Later, extract the bars from the molds and allow them to dry in a well-ventilated area. Do not use heat for this as we have cold-pressed the soap.

Transforming basic soap into laundry soap: Laundry soap has greater cleansing effect than ordinary soap. It is much stronger and hence can be harmful to the human skin. You can make laundry soap from basic soap. To do this, you may need few ingredients like 4 oz of basic soap, gallons of water, half cup of borax, fragrance oil (as much as you need), and large storage container.

5. Make soap pieces: Laundry soap starts with basic soap. Chop the prepared soap into pieces and put them into the water in the pot. Start heating the pot in order to melt the soap pieces.

6. Boil and stir: Keep boiling. Stir the mixture well in order to let the soap dissolve completely into  water. Laundry soap should be made harder, hence water has to be added to it. Once the soap is dissolved, add borax and fragrance oil (if you like) to the mixture.

7. Keep in storage container: Pour the mixture into the storage container and allow it to cool. When cooled, the mixture will solidify into gel. Your laundry soap will be ready once you get the gel like substance. You can now use it extensively for all kinds of cloth washing. You can use an appropriate amount of gel, say about half a cup with every load of wash.

Soap is the result of combining fats (like beef tallow or lard) with some sort of caustic agent like lye (sodium hydroxide) using water as a catalyst. It is the oldest cleansing agent and is said to have been used by the ancient Egyptians, even Cleopatra. The process of soap making or saponification is simple if you are aware of a few things:

1. Beef tallow: Beef tallow is the common fat used in soap making. Most of the market-famous soaps contain an ingredient called ’sodium tallowate’ which is nothing but rendered beef fat. Though many modern manufacturers prefer vegetable oils to prepare soaps, not all do as vegetable oil soaps do not give much lather. Beef tallow soaps are harder, give rich lather and make better soaps. Soaps made out of lard are softer while those made of chicken fat are the softest.

However, you need to check if your tallow is cleared off impurities before using it in soap making. This is because rancid or dirty beef tallow can give a nasty smell to your soap. To clear your tallow of impurities, boil it in water and then set it for cooling. Once all the water is boiled, you can see pure tallow sticking to your pan. Remove it by pouring hot water outside the pot, scrape all the dirt from the bottom of the fat. Now, your tallow is ready for use.

2. Saponification value: Saponification is the name given to the chemical reaction that happens between lye and fat as they turn into soap. Saponification takes time depending on the heaviness of your fat or oil. Lighter fats or oils takes as long as days to saponify while the heavier ones settle into soap sooner. There are different levels to this process and all you need to do is find the “trace” of soap formation. You can find out that your soap is actually in the formation when you find ‘traces’ of the mixture as solid particles, without blending it. You can trace it with the thickness of the mixture too. It has the thickness of a pudding after cooking.

3. False trace: Sometimes a false trace appears if the temperature of your mixture is below that of the melting point of your fat. This happens mostly with beef tallow as it turns solid at room temperature. When a false trace happens, your fat starts solidifying, fooling you into believing that it is soap. To avoid this, always keep your soap mixture’s temperature above your tallow’s melting point.

4. Lye or Sodium Hydroxide: Using lye to prepare soap is the best method available. But you need to be careful while handling lye crystals as it can cause damage to you. Always use rubber gloves and goggles while using lye. Also, never pour water into lye or sodium hydroxide. Pour lye crystals into water. This would not just make the crystals dissolve quickly but will also prevent them from exploding all over.

5. Mixing lye and fat: When the lye water and the fat (tallow) is at the right temperature, very gently pour the lye water into the fat. Stir in only one direction till you finish adding lye water to the tallow. Keep stirring to prevent tallow from solidifying. Your soap will slowly solidify, resulting in saponification.

Why is beef tallow used in soaps? The reasons are aplenty. First and foremost, it is one of the ingredients of good old fashioned soap making. Second, it is one of the harder oils which make white soap that creates good lather. Third, it is cheap, readily available and makes a really good soap that cannot be duplicated by vegetable oil soap. However, beef fat should be rendered into tallow to be used in soaps.

Beef tallow and soap making myths: A massive number of people believe that soaps with beef tallow as ingredient are some of the worst kinds of soaps in the market. This is wrong. Beef tallow is better than many synthetic and chemical ingredients added to soaps by manufacturers. Another myth is, tallow soaps clog skin pores and cause allergic skin conditions. This is not the case, really. Many chemicals in the soaps do so. Many consumers also assume that tallow soaps are of low-quality and damaging to compared to good, factory-made soaps. This is false because many manufacturers of commercial personal care products use animal fat as a primary ingredient. So, do not associate beef tallow soaps with low quality soaps.

Nature of beef tallow soaps: Tallow gives a nice rich creamy lather and good conditioning properties to your soaps. Added to this, it gives hardness to the bar, facilitating longer use. It is better to prefer a soap that has the right combination of soap making oils (like vegetable oils or fragrance oils) along with tallow. This is because tallow is a harder oil and does not clean well even if it produces good lather. Another big disadvantage is, you would not prefer a tallow soap if you are an animal activist, pure vegan, PETA member, or someone who just feels ‘yuck’ to use a soap that has beef tallow in it. On the other side of the spectrum, most of the tallow soap users tend to love the bar and use it regularly.

Making beef tallow soaps: Making tallow soaps is easy if you know how to render beef fat or suet and then know the basic rules of soap making. Tallow is ideal for making white soaps that give rich lather. A basic white soap recipe would normally include 35% beef tallow, 30% coconut, 30% lard and 5% castor oil. Sometimes refined Shea butter can be added to the basic white soap for added advantage of lather.