Help me use up this lard and lye before they go bad

[Darbla]

I've got a bucket of lard and a bottle of lye that I need to use up.  I'm thinking of making a large batch of unscented CP soap to get the stuff both out of my kitchen and to try to keep it from going to waste because I'm just not making much of anything these days, then when I want it scented I figure I can rebatch and add scent.  Also I don't have a large enough mold for this size batch to go HP in my oven (I'm using a cardboard box) and it's too large for a crockpot, so I was leaving out scent to keep it from ruining in the CP process.  And this experiment is only going to be a loss at this point if I lose good FO. 

 

Is this a dumb plan?  How much more difficult is rebatching than melt and pour?  Is there anything else I can do to use this lard up before it goes rancid?

 

Here's the recipe I'm trying:

3 pounds of lard
1 pound of coconut oil
24 oz. goat milk
8.5 oz. lye

If you want scent, it was recommended to add about 2 oz. of fragrance oil to this batch.

(recipe from Wendy here:  http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/country-homemaking/soapmaking/282258-hot-process-lard-soap-recipe-tips.html )

Edited May 10, 2014 by Darbla

[8-GRAN-ONES]

you know another thing you can do...if you are really not wanting to use your lard right now..

is freeze it..

i buy my tallow in bulk, and freeze it all the time..

the lye, of course you can't freeze it..

but i have had lye for 2 - 3 yrs. and it has never went bad...

[Jcandleattic]

Lye won't go bad if you keep it in a cool dry place and it doesn't get moisture at all in it. 

And as 8-Gran-Ones said, freeze the lard. It'll keep for years if you freeze it. 

 

Rebatching is quite a different process than melt and pour. Especially if it's an old bar (like older than a couple months) then you have to add liquids and/or oils to get it fluid enough to even mold it and/or add scent,. but you also have a fine line of how much is too much, etc, etc. 

I only rebatch when it's an absolute necessity. 

 

I guess I don't quite understand what you mean by the FO getting ruined by the CP process? I CP all the time, and put my FO directly into the oils and usually will never have a problem unless it's a scent that's prone to seizing, and even then, there are ways around that. 

 

Good luck! 

[chuck_35550]

Lard is hydrogenated and shouldn't go rancid if kept in a dry, cool place. Lard in a bucket ought to keep just fine but you could simply make smaller batches and fragrance your soap without worry.  If you're not doing much soaping these days (neither am I) it would be better to go ahead and make the soap as usual. I ran that through soapcalc and  it looks a little light on lye, you may want to double check that formula.  HTH

 

Steve

[soapbuddy]

I would go with 8.8 ozs. of lye  since milk has some natural fats.

[Darbla]

Finally did this today, and it turned out looking like pumpkin!

 

 

It seemed like the goats' milk sort of caramelized.  If it really makes decent soap after curing a few weeks, this will be perfect to rebatch with Autumn scents.  At the least I can rebatch to liquid soap to use in my bathroom/kitchen hand soap pumps.

 

But I still have at least a pound of coconut oil left and plenty of lye, so I may be buying more lard and goat's milk to finish using it up.     Or find/develop a different recipe to try.

 

I did end up using a bit more lye (as Steve hinted at, soapcalc came up with more than the recipe stated).  Also it zoomed to trace in no time.  I noticed it was already thickish while still in my stainless steel vat, and I only used the stick blender for a minute or two before I started getting worried it'd be too thick to get into the mold.  I've made several batches over the past few years, and none have ever set up THAT fast.  Is there anything in this recipe you think would've caused that, or does that present any problems I need to watch out for later?

 

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Darbla