Teach Soap

good morning everyone! Yesterday I rendered some tallow and today it looks ok except for a few spots on the bottom of it when I took it out of the bowl. I didn't wash it off yet, but was wondering how do you know if it needs to be rendered a second time? I think it looks ok but thought I'd ask since this was my first time!

ok, I did some more reading and decided that I don't need to do a second time. I cleaned up the bottom real good and cut into it...looks very nice! Here's a pic:

That looks really nice! How does it smell? I use lard a lot in my soap, but didn't try tallow because I thought it might be too strong smelling.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

Looks nice and white. How does it smell?

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I can barely detect a smell at all...it's faint! I find the tub of lard I buy at walmart to have more smell than this. From what I've read, it says to render outside or turn a fan on if you're doing it inside...so I was prepared to have a rank-smelling kitchen...but from start to finish, no foul smells. When I was boiling the fat, it smelled like I was making soup! Could it be the fat I used? I used kidney suet. I don't know, I was just surprised. The color is an off-white...it rained today so it was cloudy and gray when I took the pic.

I took lots of pics of the process and hope to get it on my blog soon!

Kidney suet is the best to render. That's most likely why it has no smell and is nice and white.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Where did you find kidney suet, methree? Did you purchase it somewhere or do you raise your own cattle?

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I agree about it smelling like your making beef stock.

Thanks, Anita!

There are a couple of people I know that raise cattle, so I may be able to get the suet from them - it won't hurt to ask! If not then I'll check around. Thanks again for the links!

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

You're certainly welcome.

Anita

my blog isn't anything exciting, but I got all the pics and steps posted. you can look here: