Homemade Soap Made From 100% Home Rendered Lard
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This lard soap recipe gives you a nice creamy and rich lathered bar that leaves you feeling clean and supple. Stop using detergents from the store, commercial soap that doesn’t actually contain soap, and make your own homemade soap, easily, with ingredients that you can pronounce and source locally. Bonus points if you render your own lard like me! Soap making is a great way to use up the leftover fat pieces and trimmings that really aren’t great for anything else.
This recipe is a 100% lard soap recipe and contains no vegetable oils or castor oils because it simply doesn’t need them. I know some folks get caught up on adding castor oil for more bubbles, but just try it. This soap has the thickest, richest lather!
If there’s one thing I know, it’s soap. I fell into the fascinating science of soap making about 6 years ago and never looked back. While I’m still always learning, I have learned quite a bit in my endeavors to learn as much as I possibly can. One valuable thing I have learned is that soap is forgiving and you can take some stinky, undesirable stuff that you don’t want to cook with and make soap with it successfully. I’m mostly talking about goat milk that maybe didn’t get cooled down fast enough or is a touch old and the acids have multiplied and it gets that acidic goat flavor that nobody likes…. soap doesn’t care… and you’d never know I used some raunchy milk afterward.
Same with fat trimmings, especially pork. Lawdyyyyy… pork fat trimmings STINK to high heavens when you render them, or at least I think they do. They’re just smelly and really unpleasant to cook with. Not like the pure and almost odorless leaf fat rendered into snow white lard for pie makin’. We’re talking the fat trimmings from all the meat cuts you don’t want excessive fat caps on and such. That stuff. But don’t toss it. Nosireeeebawbbbb. Render it still and save it for soap making. Because once you make it into soap, you don’t smell like pig grease when you use it. Well… I guess nobody has told me I smell like pig fat anyway, but I just notice the essential oils I’ve added to the bar when I bathe, not a porky smell :D And animal fats make the BEST soap evahhhhhhh.
How to Render Lard
I did a whole blog post on my rendering process on this so check it out here. I go into step-by-step detail on how I wet render lard.
You can render using a kettle, large pot, or even a slow cooker. Once rendered, I strain the liquid fat through a coffee filter or cheese cloth into mason jars, let it cool, vacuum seal the lids on, and store those jars on the shelf at room temperature in my canning pantry. Properly rendered fat is SHELF STABLE and needs no further processing. Repeat after me, “YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRESSURE CAN PROPERLY RENDERED LARD.”
Which Lard to Use
Now. To put it simply, this is my rule of thumb when it comes to rendered fat. Use the leaf fat and render that for cooking for pork fat. That leaf fat renders down into a snow white, pure, and almost odorless leaf lard that is DELICIOUS for making pie crust, tortillas, and flaky biscuits. You save that beautiful goodness for baking and I don’t wanna hear no more about it. Don’t you dare use that beautiful fat for soap! Don’t you even dareeeeeeeee.
The fat trimmings are for soap. They stink, you can’t get them deodorized no matter how many times you purify them, and the soap saponification process makes that smell **poof** and disappear. Promise. Render those fat trimmings separate, strain ’em good, and store them just the same as you would any other properly rendered fat, labeled appropriately.
If you buy custom butchered meat from local farmers or have a butcher process your animals, ask them to save ALL THE FAT and to keep the kidney fat or leaf fat separate from the trimmings if at all possible. You need to remember that that is your animal you’re taking to the butcher and you are paying them to process it for you, so get what you want! There’s no reason for a good butcher to say no, and if they do, they’re not the right one to be taking your animals to.
Can I Sub Tallow?
Lard and tallow have similar SAP values, meaning the amount of lye it takes to turn it into soap basically. That’s very basic layman’s terms but it’ll do. If you would rather use tallow or have that on hand instead of lard, use that. I gratefully have BOTH. If you are subbing tallow, use the same thing like pork and use the rendered fat trimmings rather than the suet (which is the beef equivalent of leaf fat in hogs).
Beef fat trimmings never really get the steak smell out of them and are also undesirable for skin care like balms and lotions, but work fabulously in soap making. I also use the rendered trimmings tallow to fry in because the mild beef smell and flavor does not affect the end product and makes some fire french fries. It also doesn’t smell unappetizing like rendered pork fat trimmings do :D
My Different Uses for Each Type of Rendered Fat
Rendered pork fat = lard
- Rendered leaf fat = leaf lard = pie crusts
- Rendered fat trimmings = stinky = soap
Rendered beef fat = tallow
- Rendered beef suet = no smell = skin care (face balms, etc.)
- Rendered fat trimmings = beef smell = soap, frying food
Hope that helps!
Now, let’s get started on the bare minimum you’ll need to start making cold process soap!
Equipment You Will Need:
- Soap molds
- Lye safe container for mixing lye
- Lye safe large container for mixing soap
- Scale
- Spatula
- Immersion Blender
- Personal Protective Equipment: safety glasses/goggles, long sleeves, gloves
- Infrared thermometer
Ingredients:
- Rendered Pork Fat
- Lye
- Distilled Water
- Goat Milk
- Kaolin Clay
- Essential Oil(s)
- Other additives: cosmetic clays, botanicals, etc
For this recipe, it fills 2 silicone molds linked in the recipe printable below, making two – 2 pound soap loaves, which is a small batch and will give you about 20 bars of soap. If you have never worked with lye, know that lye is a very caustic substance and can cause burns if it gets on your skin or in your eyes, so practice precaution and wear PPE. When working with lye, keep an open container of white vinegar nearby as it will neutralize lye and in case of splashes or spills, dump vinegar on it immediately. Lye is a very basic substance so it will be neutralized by a very acidic substance.
Be sure all children and pets are not in the same room with you for safety. When mixing lye, do so in a well ventilated area and try to use a sink or something to mix it in to capture any splashes or spills outside of the container it’s in. Just for extra safety precautions, please! Soapmaking is very fun, but just don’t be stupid, k?
Step 1: Dissolve Lye
The first step to soap making is to prepare the lye solution. In a lye safe container, such as a mason jar or a container with the recycle logo #5 on it, measure out distilled water by weight on your scale. I actually use old sour cream and cottage cheese containers from the store because they are the right kind of plastic that is safe to use with lye. Using plastic of another type can melt or leech into your lye solution.
**ALWAYS ADD LYE TO WATER, NOT WATER TO LYE. IT CAN VOLCANO OUT IF YOU ADD WATER TO THE LYE AND BURN YOU.**
Into your lye safe container, measure out by weight 9 ounces of distilled water.
In a separate lye safe container, measure out 8.6 ounces of lye.
Working in a sink, slowly add the lye to the distilled water. Stir gently with a heat proof spatula until the lye dissolves, keeping your face out of the direct line of the fumes released.
Once the lye is dissolved and you don’t feel anything gritty on the bottom, allow the solution to set aside until it cools to under 90 degrees F. Checking the temperature of the lye is where having one of those laser infrared thermometers comes rather in handy. But a cooking thermometer will work also.
Step 2: Melt the Fat
While the lye solution is cooling, into a large pitcher or soap making safe container (I use a 16 cup glass batter pitcher/measuring cup), melt 64 ounces of lard in the microwave or over a double boiler or in a large pot on the stove top. Stir. You’re just looking for melted, liquid fat here.
To the melted fat, add in 14 ounces of goat milk directly to the oil. I use a milk in oil method, meaning instead of freezing goat milk and reacting the lye with it, I use a concentrated lye and water solution to dissolve the lye and add the remainder of the liquid in the form of milk directly to my oils. This is much easier in that you don’t have to worry about scorching the milk reacting it with the lye and stirring like a crazy person ’til your arm falls off. You still get goat milk soap, it’s just easier. The water evaporates during curing and leaves behind all the goodness of goat milk.
Set the oil and milk mixture aside to cool along with the lye.
Step 3: Prepare the Essential Oils
I use kaolin clay mixed with essentials oils to add some good smells to my soap bars. Kaolin clay works as an anchor for essential oils since it really loves to absorb oil and helps that scent to stay in the soap. The clay also adds a lovely slip to the bar and makes the soap really glide-y and smooth. Essential oils tend to be wimpy when it comes to soap and like to go completely missing after the cure unlike fragrance oils, but I’ve found since mixing them with kaolin clay, they stay around more.
I don’t really care to use fragrance oils anymore so I stick with essential oils. If you would like to use a fragrance oil, get ya one and make sure you check into the usage percentage to see how much you can add to your soap and double check it is safe for soap because some are not. The usage rate is usually a percentage of the weight of the soap batch you are making.
In a small jar, mix 2 ounces of your favorite essential oil(s) with 2 teaspoons of kaolin clay. Mix together and set aside until you’re ready to make soap. I like to let them sit for a little while; overnight if I remember. Some good essential oils that behave well in soap (meaning they don’t speed up or affect trace and the batter) are peppermint, lavender, and sweet orange. If you’re new to soap, please don’t use clove right out of the gate. It is so ORNERY.
Get a few paper towels out and lay them in the area where you’re making soap to place your immersion blender and spatula on as you work and to also quickly clean any spills or splatters.
Step 4: Make Soap
Once the lye solution has cooled to 90F or lower, double check the temperature of the lard. You want the melted fat and the lye solution to be within 10 degrees of one another. Normally my lye solution is a little warmer than my fat, but I don’t like to “soap” above 90 degrees. You’ll hear a lot of opinions on this one, and this is mine and what works for me and I prefer to soap at a lower temperature. Once you make enough soap, you’ll form your own opinion on your favorite temperature to “soap” at.
If the oil/milk mixture got too cool, place it over a pan for a makeshift double boiler with a thermometer and stir while it heats until it’s warmed enough.
Get your immersion blender, place it in the oil mixture, tap to burp all the bubbles out of the bottom, and blend the oil and milk mixture until its blended together well. Please never forget to burp your stick blender otherwise you’re introducing thousands of tiny microbubbles into your oils and it makes for lots of air bubbles in your soap loaf. It’s not the end of the world but it is undesirable.
Add in the essential oil and kaolin clay mixture. Blend really well again. Keep the immersion blender in the oil.
Using one hand to hold the immersion blender and your dominant hand to pour to lye solution, slowly pour the lye solution down the blending portion of the stick blender. This prevents splashing and helps the lye to go directly into the oils. Just another layer of precaution.
Blend until the batter emulsifies (meaning everything looks mixed) and then check for trace. To do this, lift the immersion blender out of the batter and let the soap run off of the blender while you move it overtop to soap batter. If you can see a line left behind in the batter, you have reached trace. A very faint line means you have a light trace and you could blend some more. Some people like to do fancy swirls (I’m those people) so a light trace is where you stop so you can split the batter into separate pitchers, add clays and colorants, and go from there. If this is your first batch, don’t try that, just blend a little more and check your trace again so you can get an eye for it and get a batch of soap under your belt.
Once your soap batter reaches trace, remove the stick blender, scrape off carefully with a spatula, and pour gently into each soap mold. Scrape out your pitcher and get every last bit of soap you can.
Tap the bottom of the soap molds on the counter to release any air bubbles.
You can wait until the soap starts setting up to texture the tops or you can skip it altogether.
Spritz the top of your soaps with a high percentage rubbing alcohol to prevent soda ash. It’s not necessary to do this and it doesn’t affect the usability of the bar, but just helps mitigate that unsightly chalky layer that likes to form on the tops of soap. It easily steams away later on if you want them to look pretty and forget.
For the soap dishes (the spatulas, immersion blender, pitcher, and other containers), I set them outside where no one can get to them and allow them to saponify for 24 hours before washing them in hot water with the soap that was left behind in the containers.
Step 5: Gel Phase
After the soap is poured into the mold, it will continue to heat up and go through gel phase and then start cooling again. I put my soap in my basement on the concrete floor while it goes through this where no one will be near it or touch it and I know it won’t over heat. Soap molds, especially the wood ones like I use, can be insulators and keep the soap warm for longer. If it gets too hot, it can grow and kinda start to erupt out of your molds. That’s why I choose to put them in the basement where it’s cool so they don’t overheat. Other folks use the fridge. You do you, just don’t let it over heat especially with goat milk in it. This lovely chemical reaction happening is what turns the fat into soap! So cool!
Allow the soap to cool in the mold for at least 24 hours, but I normally let it sit for 3-5 days before removing so it’s hardened and not sticky or it just makes a mess.
Step 6: Cut & Cure Soap
Remove soap loaf from the mold and cut into bars of soap. Thicker bars take longer to cure as compared to thinner bars. Smaller pieces don’t last as long in the bath as thicker. Find a happy medium.
Slice and allow them to cure for 4-6 weeks, or longer if you can. The more they dry out, the longer the bar lasts. They are safe to use after 24 hours but they won’t last long since they haven’t cured and lost all that extra water within the bars.
And there ya have it. Soap! Made with pork fat that didn’t smell very good and had pieces of meat stuck to it that you then rendered down, added some lye to, and are now gonna scrub your butt with it! Yay!
Homemade Soap Made From 100% Home Rendered Lard
Equipment
- Lye safe container for mixing lye
- Personal Protective Equipment: safety glasses/goggles, long sleeves, gloves
Ingredients
- 64 oz lard rendered fat trimmings preferred
- 8.6 oz sodium hydroxide 100% lye
- 9 oz distilled water
- 14 oz goat milk
- 2 oz sweet orange essential oil
- 2 tsp kaolin clay
- 91% rubbing alcohol
Instructions
- Follow soap making routine as normal using the milk in oil method. If you need in depth instructions, refer to the blog post or a soap making book to help you! Please understand lye safety before handling and working with lye and have all personal protective equipment available and on when making soap.
- Wearing proper PPE for lye safety, measure out the sodium hydroxide (lye) into a small lye safe container. In a separate lye safe container, measure out the distilled water. In a sink, add the lye to the water and stir to dissolve. Leave to cool.
- In a large lye safe pitcher or bowl, melt the lard until liquid.
- Once lard is melted, add goat milk straight to the oil.
- Check the temperature of the lye solution and the oil. I prefer to soap with both below 90F. You want the lye solution and oil within 10 degrees of one another before mixing.
- While you wait, measure out peppermint essential oil into a small glass jar. Add in 2 teaspoons of kaolin clay and stir to combine.
- When oil and lye solution are below 90F, you are ready to make some soap!
- Place immersion blender in oils and pour in the essential oil/kaolin clay mixture. Tap the bottom of the blender to burp any air bubbles out and then blend until the milk and essential oils are well mixed.
- While holding the immersion blender, dump the lye solution down the length of the immersion blender slowly.
- Blend in pulses at first and then blend continuously until a light trace is reached.
- Pour into prepared loaf molds.
- Tap gently to release any air bubbles and spray tops with 91% rubbing alcohol.
- Set in a cool place to harden for 24-72 hours. After this time, remove loaves from mold and cut into about 10 bars.
- Allow bars to cure for 4-6 weeks before using. Bars are safe to use after 24 hours but don't last very long if you don't give them time to cure, or dry out.
