Grease cutting lard soap? Without borax?

Carla Burke wrote:

Maya Rapp wrote:This is probably a weird question, but can you make soap out of bacon grease?

Yes, you can. It would need to be well filtered, but 'bacon soap' is a "thing", and that's what it's made with. In fact, I have some nice, clean bacon grease in my fridge right now, waiting it's turn to become soap.

How about chicken fat? I have a bunch in my freezer from processing chickens, and wasn't sure what to do with it.

I don't see why not. There is a fellow here who uses bear grease. I think fat is fat!!

Maya Rapp wrote:

Carla Burke wrote:

Maya Rapp wrote:This is probably a weird question, but can you make soap out of bacon grease?

Yes, you can. It would need to be well filtered, but 'bacon soap' is a "thing", and that's what it's made with. In fact, I have some nice, clean bacon grease in my fridge right now, waiting it's turn to become soap.

How about chicken fat? I have a bunch in my freezer from processing chickens, and wasn't sure what to do with it.

I'm a schmaltz lover, so I'd be cooking with it, but I see no reason at all, why it wouldn't work - though it might be a tad challenging to find anyplace on the web that will have it listed in a lye calculator. I'd likely lump it in there with lard (also the most likely match for the bacon fat) and tallow, though, as they're probably the closest, in lye reactivity.

Bacon soap! I made it myself!

Hello All,

This is my first Permies reply. Love this forum. The key may be to look at the superfat level in the soap recipe. Superfat is the amount of fat that remains in the soap once all the lye is converted. If there is a lot of lard left in your soap I would suspect it won't leave a clean finish. The Brambleberry lye converter online includes the superfat level. Set it to be 0 to get a recipe for the amount of  amount of lye to add to any fat you have to get a clean cutting soap recipe. If you use wood ash you will get inconsistent results as the amount of lye varies. If you have lye leftover in your soap it can irritate skin.

I use my homemade barsoap on my dishes and it cuts grease like a charm. I usually save the center that starts getting squishy at the end in a little ramekin, pour hot water just to cover and it makes a gel. I keep a little dish brush in it that is always ready to go for pots and pans.

Hi Tabitha,

Welcome to Permies.