Greetings, friends! A few weeks ago I made two batches of cold-process body and hand soap. I wouldn't consider myself a hard-core soap maker, but I do enjoy using my own homemade soaps for my family. The bars lather and condition very well, and I feel good knowing that I know every ingredient that went into the soap. Just two years ago, I thought I would never be interested in making soap, but a good friend introduced me to it and I'm hooked! Not only am I saving money, but I have a wonderful new hobby! Are my bars beautful? NO! But do they clean? YES! That's really all I need.
Have you been toying around with the idea of making cold-process soap? If so, I am happy to share my experiences as a new soap maker with you.
There are two main ingredients of cold-process soap: Lye and fat. Soap is born when the fatty acids mix with lye, or sodium hydroxide. You may have heard the saying "you can't have soap without lye". That is absolutely true! If you look at the ingredients on a Dove Beauty Bar label, you probably won't see the word "Lye" on the ingredient list, but you will see Sodium Tallowate. Simply put, this is a combination of tallow (fat from cattle or sheep) and lye.
First thing's first. Let's talk fat! I mentioned above that you need lye and fat to make soap. So what are our choices? You could use lard, tallow, palm oil, or even olive oil! Keep in mind that oils are fats too. The type and combination of fats and oils you use in your soap will impact the hardness and quality of your bar. For those of you who are looking to make an animal product-free soap, you may want to look into some of the vegetable-based fats. For me, I like to use whatever is cheapest and easy to acquire.
Tallow makes an excellent fat base (and this is what my friend used when she introduced me to soap making). Tallow makes a nice, hard, white bar of soap. Tallow is just the suet, or hard fat around the kidneys and loins in cattle and sheep. Yes, you could just use any old animal fat, but tallow is the best for rendering!
What is rendering? It's just melting the fat and straining out all of the "junk" that we don't want in our soap. I called a nearby butcher shop and asked them if they had any tallow available. They gave me a wonderful piece of suet from around the kidneys of a steer - for free! I have heard of butcher shops charging a price for tallow, but it never hurts to ask. Here is a photo of what it looks like.
Tallow is really hard and easy to chop. Since we're going to melt it down, it will save you tons of time if you just chop it up. Chop it in big chunks and run it through the food processor, or just chop it up with a knife. The smaller the better. Here is what mine looked like after it was chopped.
I was able to render (melt) the tallow outdoors, but I realize not everyone can do this. Tallow does have a certain smell, although it's not too offensive. If you do it indoors, just turn on your ventilation and open your windows. Place a small amount in the bottom of a large pot and slowly begin melting on a low heat. Once you have some melted in the bottom, add the rest and continue stirring. It's really important to get that small amount going, because if you place too much in the pot, it could scorch.
Here is what it looks like while it's melting, or rendering. At some point, you'll notice that there are still small chunks floating, but they don't seem to melt. In fact, they look like small pieces of fried fat. Ever heard of cracklins?? Some people salt and eat these, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Now, the dangerous part! You'll need a colander, an old t-shirt or cloth that you're willing to sacrifice, and another large pot. Place the cloth or t-shirt in your colander, place the colander over your other large pot. Carefully pour the hot, melted fat into your colander and let it strain into the new pot.
It should look yellow and clean. When it cools, it will turn white again, like it's original form. Now we're ready to store it! Remember, tallow is an animal fat and it will spoil if not stored correctly. Here are your options: 1) Freeze it in a plastic tub. 2) Preserve it in canning jars. You could also refigerate it, but it should be used within a couple months, in my opinion. I don't have enough freezer space, so I chose option 2 - preserve it in canning jars. I really like this method because it doesn't take up space in my freezer or fridge. One jar holds about 28 oz weight of tallow, which is the perfect amount for a batch of soap.
First, heat your canning jars. If you pour hot liquid into a cold jar, there will be an explosion and you could be injured. Heat those jars as much as possible! Either run them through the heat cycle on your dishwasher, or let them soap in scalding hot water. Place the heated jars on a towel. A cold countertop and a hot jar of fat could be a bad combination. Use a funnel and carefully fill your canning jars with the rendered fat. Leave about an inch of headspace. Use only new lids, because you will need a seal to preserve your tallow. Place your lids and rings, and you're done! The hope is that the heat from the oil will cause a seal. You will not need to process the jars like you would if you were canning food. After all, we are not eating this tallow, so it doesn't need to be processed to a certain temperature. The only thing we're after is a seal from the heat.
Any jars that don't seal will need to be used relatively quickly. If you have a jar or two that fail to seal, just place them in the refrigerator and use them first. I rendered this tallow during the Winter of 2011, and my jars are still fresh to date - Spring 2012.
When it cools it will be white and ready to use! Sounds like a lot of work? It really isn't bad. Remember, you don't have to render your own tallow to make soap. There are plenty of store-bought options available, but I wanted something cheap. The idea is to keep cost low as possible to save money for my family. That's all for now! More on the economics of soap-making next time!
Finally! A soap recipe that has a nice, stable lather in the shower. All of my previous batches didn't lather quite as well, but they were still nice. I'm a big fan of using tallow as my base fat for all my soaps. It's free and just requires a little work to render. 
