If you’re saying to yourself, “Ivory, I don’t wanna to BUY fat to make my soap. I have plenty of fat in my grease can!” then this is the post for you.
So, how do we turn icky, blech-y, Mr. Ivory-should-be-ashamed-of-how-much-bacon-he-eats kitchen grease into glorious, bubbly, clean soap?
a. Put half fat, half-ish water in a pan and bring it to a boil.
b. Remove from heat, stir, and add about ½ as much COLD water as before cooking. (I had a coffee cup of fat, and added a coffee cup of water to boil, so I added a half a cup of cold water at this step.)
c. Let it cool till the fat floats and is scoopable onto a plate. (Fridge or freezer speeds it up. Just don’t accidentally defrost your chicken breasts, K?)
d. If it still seems a little blech to you, do it again. I did.
(Cleaner second time, no?)
2. Weigh and melt fat.
3. Sprinkle the lye into the water and swirl.
[As I mentioned previously, the lye calculators say that for one pound of lard-ish fat, you need 6 ounces of water and 2 ounces of lye--I had 3/4 of a pound of grease after washing, so I needed 4.5 ounces of water (3/4 of 6 oz) and 1.5 ounces of lye (3/4 of 2 oz). ]
4. Wait till both are not smoldering hot and pour lye solution into the fat.
5. Blend with immersion blender.
6. Stop when you can see where you’ve been. (called “trace”)
6b. This is the time to put in the fragrance, if you wish.
7. Pour into custom built soap mold. (HA!)
Let it sit a day and peel off the carton, slice, and cure for a few weeks.
Waa-laa! Soap. Any residual pork rind-y smells will be GONE when it cures.
**Note to self, if the economy goes to heck in a hand-basket, check crystal ball three weeks ahead so that soap will already be cured when the big one hits.
Self-Proclaimed Recycling Queen of October 2008—
Ivory
SAFETY REMINDER: Lye is caustic–See our discussion of and links to safety for soapmaking here.
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This post has been so popular that we put a rush on the follow-up post Like Bacon for Candles.
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Thanks!
That is some groovy-lookin’ old time soap you got there grandma–I mean S-PRQ’08. Yer my soap hero. You still haven’t explained the significance of the ping pong/soaping table. Secret, hunh? I understand.
I used to make soap and this is by far the easiest one, better than my Blender method. I need to try this because my soap-(I have severe allergies to fragrance)-cost me $2.99 for one bar. Thanks for posting this.
I have to try this, I’ve only ever used olive oil and thats expensive! Plus, then it didn’t have any bacon in it- and everything is better with bacon!
What a good idea!
Thanks,
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
This is excellent. Can you add fragrances if you wish? I’m passing this on to my daughter, because she loves bacon.
Glad everyone is enjoying it. Ms. Thomsen is cracking me up! Everything IS better with bacon.
netta, you would add fragrance at ‘trace’ or ‘as soon as you can see where you’ve been.’ Put in some essential oil or what-have-you, blend it in for a sec, and pour it in the mold.
Patrice Farmer,
Did you see the lard or crisco recipe. That’s even easier. No fat washing. It’s good to have complete control over ingredients. I use my homemade soaps as my shampoo, laundry detergent, body wash, etc. LOVE IT.
Outstanding post! I’ve got this one bookmarked, cuz the world just may be going to heck in a handbasket real quick like, eh? Gotta be clean…
Thanks for this post. I’d ben wondering how to do this.
Rebecca @ FreakyFrugalite.com
Excellent! Now I know what to do with my grease can. Question – do you use the same immersion blender for your other food or does the lye make it unsafe?
jesstrev,
Yes, I reuse it.
After making the soap, I soak the business end of that puppy in tumbler of vinegar and water for a few minutes to let any stray lye in the cracks and crevices go ahead and react (i.e. do the acid/base jitterbug with my vinegar and turn to into water).
Then I wash the blender the same as if I’d made a shake.
It’s clean.
Thank you so very much! I already clean everything with vinegar so that’ll be a snap. Thanks for splainin the basic science to me.
Making soap is so great! But I would really not recommend an immersion blender. That is a good way to burn the crap out of yourself with splashed lye or highly caustic uncured soap.
Thanks, Annie–you bring up a FABULOUS point. Safety first! Whenever using lye, goggles and gloves and protective clothing are a MUST! I am putting a link into this post to one of our previous posts in which we show our safety routine. Thank you so much!
Why not make your own lye too?
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Lye
pepperoni,
WOW. You try it and tell me how it goes. HA!
Ivory
Your soap mold is ingenious!
Red Icculus,
Thanks! I was hoping you’d like it!
I was so excited to find this post, I had been thinking about trying to make soap for a while now, then when I found this I decided to give it a try. But oh my goodness I didn’t realize how hard it is to find Lye. I have looked all over my local area up to 30 miles away and can not find it, so I’m gonna have to order it on line. Gonna do that tonight.
I make my own laundry detergent, so guess what soap I’m using next?
Thanks for the great post
Tammy
Can you use any type of grease? Like hamburger grease and whatnot? I combine all different types of grease in my grease can.
Mine too. It just got to be called the ‘bacon soap’ after it went crazy on the net. Any grease will do.
I MADE SOAP!!!!! My first batch was made this Friday and I am hooked I am now trolling my friend for their grease jars. I made mine with grapefruit essential oil. It looks cool and smells yummy. Is this stuff safe to use on skin? Any try adding herbs to this stuff? This is so exciting!
)
@nicole–It is safe for skin, but it probably won’t be a very satisfying bathing experience. It won’t be very bubbly without a lot of lathering. Try it out and tell me how it goes.
BTW, All cured soap is safe for skin. Wait about a month before using on skin. You can use it in laundry soap immediately, though.
I didn’t even last a few days I made another batch on Sunday. This time with oils I had around the place and a bottle of salad seasonings ground fine and some lemon essential oil. A month? I thought it was three weeks. The wait to try it out is killing me! I am completely hooked. Thanks for making me junior scientist. Ladies you had me doing algebra, I loathe math,but I did it for soap. love ya ladies!!!
Sweet! I am not the only one embarking on home made laundry soap so therefore, you have to make the soap, too.
Thanks for breaking this down and making it not scary sounding at all. Gotta try it as soon as I can gather the ingredients.
Not scary. You’ll be surprise how much drama surrounds soap-making once you try it. It’s not a big deal.
Dear Ivory,
My first batch of soap was a complete disaster. Then I learnd kitchen grease needs to be “washed” I didn’t know exactly HOW, until I found you :’ )
So I read that kitchen grease can also rancid?? I have some sitting over a year now, is that still good to use? or should I just boil it with water several times. Thankx so much!!
@Maria I’d just boil it a few times and see what you get. Has it been sitting out the whole time or in the fridge?
Hmmm I never thought of storing it in the fridge, would that be better? Because mine is always out. Anf thanks for your help!
i really want to try this but i’m not comfortable keeping lye in my house because i have children. is there any way to make this without the lye in it? thanks for this!! in this economy we need to do what we can to save money!!
Thanks for sharing this! I’m boiling as I type! <3
I finally got it! My used grease is always stored in the fridge. Then I just boil , let cool, put in the fridge, then scoop and use. It doesn’t smell yeeppeee.