Thursday, October 14, 2010

How to make lard


You have to understand that Lard comes from rendered pig fat, while Tallow or Suet comes from rendered beef fat.

Rendering is a messy thing to do. Rendering of fat is the melting of the tissue material and collection and solidification of the molten fat.

How to render lard:

1. Buy pig fat. Get parts of the pig that has lots of fats. You can use bacon, but it's quite pricey. Or you can choose to buy pig's skin that still has layers of fat. It's your call, look for parts that are fatty.
*Make sure to separate the meat IF POSSIBLE.

2. Once you have your fats, slice them into smaller bits. 
3. Heat your cooking pot.

4.. Once the pot is hot enough, place your fats. Do not put any oil. Your rendering will produce its own oil from the pig fat.

5. Be patient. You wont see any oil come out from it... yet. Keep stirring the fats on the pot. Once in a while, put 1 oz. of water into it. Just little water.
Everytime you are pouring small amounts of water, it will tend to boil. That's good. Keep stirring.

5. Once the fats you have placed are becoming really toasted and brown, remove the toasted fats and place it aside. Do whatever you want with the burnt fats.

6. Use a strainer to remove some of the left toasted fats. Hey, you only want the rendered liquid oil for your soap. The residue of toasted fats that's still in your rendered oil when used for soap may tend to cause a rancid smell, so make sure there aren't left.

7. After you have filtered your oil, place COLD COLD WATER into the rendered oil. Put more water than the amount of your rendered oil. As you are putting COLD COLD WATER into the oil, you will see white things form on top of your water-oil substance. It's kinda cool. When you are done putting COLD COLD WATER all over, gather all the white hardened oil you can see and compress them and place into another container.

8. Refrigerate.





A simple soap recipe formula for you



The first ever batch of soap I made is called Turmeric soap. 

Turmeric is a spice in India that gives lots of promising benefits to the skin. It is a natural healer for eczema, dry skin, acne and psoriasis. Turmeric is also helpful in the recovery of smallpox, chickenpox, red rashes and hot skin disease. 


Simple recipe:


The 1:3:5 formula


1 cup of lye (caustic soda)
3 cups of distilled water 
5 cups of oils 


OILS 
Remember that in soap making, there are two kinds of OILS you must use:


1Unsaturated Fat - Oils that are in a liquid form. They need to be mixed with saturated fats at the base oil stage in order to create a hard bar.


2. Saturated Fat - Oils that make a hard soap. Usually come in a solid form and need to be melted before using. Coconut, cocoa butter, Palm oil are examples.


We will discuss more about saturated and unsaturated fats later on.


In the turmeric soap recipe, I used these oils:
4 oz. cup olive oil
6 oz. Canola
2 cups palm oil
1 cup coconut oil
4 oz. vegetable shortening/Crisco
2 oz. Castor oil

At trace:
2 oz of turmeric spice.
20 drops of Patchouly Essential Oil


If you think the 1:3:5 soap formula makes a big batch of soap try cutting the measurements out in half. 1/2:1 1/2:2 1/2. This works too.

1/2 caustic
1 1/2 water or concoction
2 1/2 oils


ENJOY! 


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Oils and Fats


SATURATED AND UNSATURATED FATS

Saturated fats contain saturated fatty acids and are solids at room temperature. Lard, and butter are examples of saturated fats. Soap made from these fats tends also to be solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fats contain unsaturated fatty acids and are liquids at room temperature. Generally called oils, examples include corn oil and safflower oil. These oils produce liquid soap. While unsaturated fats are generally more healthy than saturated fats, many times a liquid fat is not convenient. For example, margarine is made from unsaturated plant oils (e.g. corn oil) which has been hydrogenated to produce a saturated (solid) fat.





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Love The Way You LYE


Potassium Hydroxide (Powder)
There are a hundred reasons why you should use soap made at home. First of all, by making your very own soap, you know what composes it. Unlike commercial soaps, homemade soaps do not contain complex chemicals you don't even know! Well of course, in making handmade soaps, there is a main ingredient that is highly caustic and dangerous... LYE. Lye is what you use to remove whatever it is that blocks your drain. It is made powerful to melt the protein of your hair and dissolve it. Hair is what blocks our drains, usually. It is for bathroom stuff but FYI, it is used for soap making! A simple thing about soap making is: NO LYE, NO SOAP.



Caustic Soda (Flakes)
Lye is a corrosive substance that contains alkali. From chemistry you have learned the components of the periodic table and lye contains 2 elements. There are 2 kinds of lye - Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) and Potassium Hydroxide (KOH). Sodium Hydroxide is called Caustic soda. Potassium Hydroxide is called Caustic potash. Potassium Hydroxide is more used for liquid soaps. In my case, I use Sodium Hydroxide and that is what we will use.


SAFETY MEASURES:

When dealing with lye, you should use latex gloves and long sleeves. Or anything that covers your hands and skin. The real case here is to cover your skin from the substance. Once the mixture of lye and water hits your skin, it can seriously burn it. In my case, I have dealt with lye a lot of times. When the mixture of lye and water touches my skin, it will feel like it's itchy but it's painful and it is burning your skin without noticing! But don't be too paranoid when dealing with Lye or caustic soda. You can still use lye without getting damaged skin if you be extra careful.

You must always wear safety goggles to avoid the risk of getting blind!  When you use equipments for soap making, you must use either glass, plastic or stainless steel.