I received an email this weekend from someone looking for tallow soap recipes. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I LOVE lard and tallow soaps. I started my soapmaking journey making soap with lard and tallow.
Tallow contributes to hard and white bar of soap with creamy stable lather.
There are a TON of websites that can help you render your own. Do a Google search for how to render tallow for soap. I went to our local butcher and got a pound of tallow to make soap with.
Here are four of my favorite tallow recipes. Each recipe provided is in percentages (so you can re-size) and 32 ounces. The 32 ounce version of the recipe fits comfortably into a Bramble Berry 10″ Loaf Mold or the 12″ Tall Skinny Loaf Mold.
Tallow Soap Recipes
The Trifecta Tallow Recipe
Tallow – 10.56 oz. (33%)
Coconut Oil – 10.56 oz. (33%)
Olive Oil – 10.88 oz. (34%)
Sodium Hydroxide – 4.67 oz.
Water – 9.34 oz.
The Trifecta Tallow Recipe is great to start with. Then you can modify it using these helpful tips.
Nourishing Tallow Recipe
Tallow – 8 oz. (25%)
Coconut Oil – 8 oz. (25%)
Olive Oil – 16 oz. (50%)
Sodium Hydroxide – 4.54 oz.
Water – 9 oz.
The Nourishing Tallow Recipe is high in olive oil making a more gentle and mild soap.
The Fancy Tallow Recipe
Tallow – 7.68 oz. (24%)
Coconut Oil – 5.12 oz. (16%)
Shea Butter – 2.56 oz. (8%)
Olive Oil – 10.88 oz. (34%)
Avocado Oil – 1.92 oz. (6%)
Rice Bran Oil – 3.84 oz. (12%)
Sodium Hydroxide – 4.37 oz.
Water – 8.74 oz.
The Fancy Tallow Recipe brings more butters and liquid oils into the mix.
Extra Bubbly Tallow Recipe
Tallow – 6.4 oz. (20%)
Coconut Oil – 10.88 oz. (34%)
Olive Oil – 12.8 oz. (40%)
Castor Oil – 1.92 oz. (6%)
Sodium Hydroxide – 4.64 oz.
Water – 9.28 oz.
The Extra Bubbly Tallow Recipe is high in coconut oil and lather-boosting castor oil creating a super-lathery bar of soap.
Happy Soaping!
-Amanda Gail
Looks like a great recipe. Tallow makes awesome soap!
Can essential oils be added to these recipes? If so at what amount?
Just an FYI about tallow: I render my own tallow. I get this from my butcher, who is also kind enough to run it through a grinder for me, and I purchase it for about .25 cents -.50 cents a pound, and often get it for free. Lucky me! I use the pressure cooker to do this, just sautéing the fat (about 4 lbs. At a time w/ a touch of water) and then put it through cheesecloth. Great results!
Amanda, my question for you is: Do you have any good tallow, goat milk soap recipes that have a lot of “moisturizing” properties for dry skin? Also, I usually use about 2-3TB of kaolin or other clay PPO in my soaps, could I still do that, or will this get a bit out of hand and thicken up too quickly (even with frozen milk)? I usually put the clay in the oils prior to the lye. And, one last question, could you also color the soap, or would the milk prevent the colors from showing true? What might rose clay look like in a tallow/goat milk (olive oil, castor oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, shea butter) kind of soap?
Thanks for everything you do!
Shari
This accelerates very quickly and became like soft concrete before I could finish getting it in my mold. Not sure if my measurements were off (I used a digital scale). If i use this recipe again I will remember to mix FO in at light trace and then pour quickly.
I just made your extra bubbly tallow recipe an hour ago. My second CP soap batch ever. I am excited to see how it turns out.
I made my own tallow, saved from a recent purchase of a quarter of beef.
What is the superfat percent in this recipe? Thank you!
Hi
Pure Tallow oil.
Selling in 1000L (Flow bin)
rendered animal fat, used (especially formerly) in making candles and soap.
Place your orders now….!!!
Della 0825633251
Wesley 0798446349 for more information.
Hi Amanda,
I just made your Trifecta recipe 🙂 What’s the superfat percentage? I can’t figure it out with a lye calculator.
Hi Amanda I would love to see more photos of designs you made in your tallow soap. Thank you for the recipes.
I just started making soap and I just want to make sure these are cold process recipes. Thanks
Hi there! Thank you for the recipes! It’s been years since I learned all about soap-making properties – hardness, softness, etc. I used to understand it well enough to create very good bars of soap (just for fun) but I just don’t have the energy to re-learn it all at this time! However I WOULD like to make a large batch for holiday gifts! I have a question about your Fancy Tallow Recipe: it looks wonderfully luxurious, but I’d like to ask how it will do in terms of hardness? I remember when I used to make my own recipes it took a long time to get a recipe that resulted in super hard bars that had just enough lather and were also very luxurious/conditioning. If you say this recipe of yours will make a hard bar of soap, I’m all over it! 🙂
Thank you!
Theresse
2 bucks a pound for unrendered tallow? I pay anywhere from 15 cents-50 cents per pound. It’s not uncommon to get it for free if you ask nicely. Butchers throw away fat every day. The work is in rendering the fat. Cube or cut it up and do your rendering with other baking to save the energy
I’m guessing it depends on where you live, I have never found a single place that gives or throws fat away. We have MANY family owned butcher shops around here, as well as all of the large stores, and none of them sell unrenderded fat for less than $1.50 – $2.00 a pound, depending on the time of year. I was told by a few of them that they use the “extra” fat to mix with deer, elk, moose, etc. Also, leave it to the FDA, buffalo meat is considered to be too lean, and butcher’s are required to add beef fat to ground buffalo to make it 92% lean! Pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Anyway, it’s not cheap nor free to buy fat in Idaho! ?
I just ran across your site but this morning I make goat milk tallow soap. The percentages were more like 52% tallow, 23% coconut and 23% olive oil. Is this going to be a problem? I am looking at buying your goat milk soap book. Are there tallow goat milk recipes in your book?
Sure wish saw your site first??
Hello,
When measuring the tallow for the recipe, do you measure it melted or solid????
Also, do you need to wait for it to cool before adding in the lye mixture (im using a crockpot)
Thank you!
You can measure it melted or solid. I measure it solid so that I’m only measuring out what I need.
No, if you are using the hot process method, you do not need to wait for it to cool.
Hi Amanda, I’m guessing I can directly substitute the tallow for lard? I tried my first lard batch a while ago after roasting a pork joint and, quite by chance, ending up with this beautifully white, odourless fat left over. It did made a good bar but unfortunately I experimented with my first madder root lye infusion and, after filtering out the madder root, ended up with considerably less lye than I should have done. I didn’t think it was enough to make a difference until I realised how soft my soap was, did the calculation and realised I’d effectively superfatted at about 16%! It did harden up eventually after about 4 months 🙂
You can! Just run it through a lye calc just in case there is a difference in lye required. Oh no on the madder! That’s a good lesson to learn, though. 🙂
Hi LuAnn! I buy rendered fat. I did process some deer fat, but I’m not a fan of processing the fat myself. I know many soapmakers who do! The #1 tip I’ve seen mentioned on message boards for making tallow soap and rendering the fat yourself is to run the fat through a sausage grinder to get it into small pieces. It helps it render faster.
Hi! So I am curious, do you render your own tallow, or do you buy it? The very first time I made soap six years ago, I rendered my own, as my in laws were having a cow butchered. I’m not sure if I hated it because of how long it took, or the smell!! Since I hadn’t done it before I didn’t realize that I should have cut the fat into smaller pieces, so it took 2 days to get all of the useable fat liquefied, plus another day to rinse and clean it all! I loved the soaps I made with it, but I’ve never wanted to do it again!! I would like to start using it again for some of my soaps, but the 3 places I have checked want $2 a pound for the unrendered fat. Any tips to make it easier to render and cheaper? Thanks for posting the recipes! 🙂
I live in an area where we hunt deer. I just run the fat through the meat grinder before melting it in water. then I scoop out any meat which goes to my dogs and filter the the remainder through cheese cloth. I remove the fat when it has set. It’s really easy and I end up with beautiful clean tallow.