Sometimes I make bacon or chorizo, and I have leftover fat. I was told that you can make soap out of fat. So I just wanted to know how.
How Do You Make Soap Out Of Bacon Grease Or Fat? Or Any Leftover Fat From A Greasy Meat?
November 15, 2009 By 4 Comments
I’ve copied the following information from http://www.thefarm.org web site.
Have Fun!
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Now The Fats Are Prepared
The preparation of the fats or grease to be used in forming the soap is the next step. This consists of cleaning the fats and grease of all other impurities contained in them.
The cleaning of fats is called rendering and is the smelliest part of the soap making operation. Animal fat, when removed from the animals during butchering, must be rendered before soap of any satisfactory quality can be made from it. This rendering removes all meat tissues that still remain in the fat sections. Fat obtained from cattle is called tallow while fat obtained from pigs is called lard.
If soap is being made from grease saved from cooking fires, it is also rendered to remove all impurities that have collected in it. The waste cooking grease being saved over a period of time without the benefits of refrigeration usually become rancid, so this cleaning step is very important to make the grease sweeter. It will result in a better smelling soap. The soap made from rancid fats or grease will work just as well as soap made from sweet and clean fats but not be as pleasant to have around and use.
To render, fats and waste cooking grease are placed in a large kettle and an equal amount of water is added. Then the kettle is placed over the open fire outdoors. Soap making is an outside activity. The smell from rendering the fats is too strong to wish in anyone’s house. The mixture of fats and water are boiled until all the fats have melted. After a longer period of boiling to insure completion of melting the fats, the fire is stopped and into the kettle is placed another amount of water about equal to the first amount of water. The solution is allowed to cool down and left over night. By the next day the fats have solidified and floated to the top forming a layer of clean fat. All the impurities being not as light as the fat remain in water underneath the fat.
You may have observed this in your own kitchen. When a stew or casserole containing meat has been put in the refrigerator, you could see the next day the same fat layer.
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You can heat it with a strong base like potassium hydroxide. I think heating it with baking soda might also work. When I have a really greasy pan I throw a small handful of baking soda in the pan and heat while stirring to make a paste. This mixture becomes foamy and when I plunk the pan into a sink full of hot soapy water it cleans up easily with very little grease left behind in the wash water.
Saponification using Potassium or Sodium Hydroxide ( you’ll need a PH meter (Target PH 7 – 10)).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saponificat…
Good Luck!!
http://www.teachsoap.com/index.html
basic step by step.
You need to add lye or some other strong alkaline to get the whole thing started. Our ancestors used wood ash……….