houdbaar: Bone Broth Tallow Soap

In this house we make a lot of beef bone broth. The byproduct is beef bones and all the other left-overs from making broth as well as the tallow that rises to the top of the broth and solidifies in the fridge.

In trying to have as little waste as possible, we use the bones and left-overs as food for our Black Soldier Fly maggot farm. What do we do with all the tallow? Freeze it. We have frozen tallow for years and when we build up a huge enough supply (or run out of soap), we render it all together and make a big batch of soap.

tallow

Soap is actually quite easy to make and you only need a few tools, lye, fat and a good recipe. We also used Red Oxide Powder for color, and Euphoria Essential Oil Blend for the scent.

tallow soap making supplies

Lye can be somewhat dangerous to work with if you are not careful, so this is not a project for young children.

The basic method for making soap is to measure out (by weight) the amount of fat you have and then use the appropriate amount of lye based on a lye calculator such as this one: http://ift.tt/1ShfWaE

weighing ingredients

You must first mix the lye with water and let it cool. The chemical reaction between the lye and water will heat up the water quite a bit, so always use caution in this step. Always wear protective gloves when handling lye.

When the lye and fat both reach your desired temperature (about 85 Degrees F and 90 Degrees F respectively), You can add the dye (if using) to the fat. Then slowly stream in your lye/water solution into the fat while stirring.

pouring

We use a hand held mixer for this part. Add the essential oils here as well. You will want to stir/blend until it reaches a thick consistency.

mixing

The next step is to pour it into your mold! We used some of these molds. Aren’t they pretty? But you can use any container you would like. Let your soap set in the mold for about 24 hours and then take it out and cut it to your desired shape and size. Then you need to let them set for about 2 more weeks! I know, it is so hard to wait!!

pour into the molds

That’s it! Soap for a year!! I am thinking that if we can swirl some red and green soaps together, this would make awesome homemade holiday gifts! And what a way to use broth making leftovers right?