Swear by tallow: 4 tallow blend soap recipes you can try anytime
Tallow soap making has existed right from the time soaps were discovered. As a byproduct of beef, tallow did not incur any harm to the environment and never resulted in depletion of virgin materials. There was an all-year round supply of tallow, thanks to the flourishing cattle trade of the American cowman. Beef was also one of the top consumer food items in the country and that kept the demand rising. With all these, the ancestors of present Americans (like their European cousins), thought it safe and prudent to make soaps and candles with tallow. Thus was passed on, the tradition of tallow soap making.
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.
