Pinewood Tallow soap….
Buying “fancy” soap is expensive. So why not make it yourself so that you can control the ingredients and source them to your liking.
After 6 weeks of curing my tallow soap is done! Unlike my last batch which I did a Hot process, this round I did a cold process(which I do find makes for a harder more dense soap) . This batch made 16 bars. Or one years of soap for basically free.
PH came out to 10.87 which I’m happy with. I typically aim for 10.
My base recipe is;
44 oz. tallow (any kind you like, I used beef tallow)
12 oz. pine bark (ground fine)
12 oz. lye ( I use white ash leaching and ph papers)
32 oz. cold non filtered water
Note:
To make lye using the leeching method you pour a 50/50 mix of hardwood ashes and water into pale, let sit for 4 hrs, bring mix to a boil for 45 mins then let cool and ashes fall to the bottom of the pale.
The lye will sit on top of the water, simply scoop it off. It should be a dark brown in colour.
by FranksFarmstead