Last week, when we butchered our first lamb, I stupidly threw out all
that snow white visceral fat with the innards. However when cutting and
packaging, I got a brain and saved what was left. Rendered, it ended up
being 3 pounds of pure tallow - three pounds of grain, grass, hay and a
year's worth of TLC...
Did some surfing, found instructions and recipes, bought a couple cans
of lye and a hand blender and with a couple pounds of added beef suet
(rendered of course), blundered my way through my first batch of soap!
What a hoot! It was fun! I ended up with a neat little Amazon
book-shipping box of green soap, which has been sliced into bars and
is curing for a week in the box. After that I get to take it out and
let it continue to cure for another month or so.
After that? All my horsie friends are going to get a bar of home made
saddle soap for Christmas! :o) It's supposed to be fabulous for skin
because it retains all the glycerin that is taken out in commercial
soap. I'm sure I'll be expanding the soapmaking operation! Hubby's
honeybees will almost surely be adding ingredients! It was fun and
certainly added value to a generous critter. If you're crafty and raise
your critters to eat, you might try this very valuable way of wasting
not.
Barb
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