Lard soap is beautiful. This gentle creamy white soap has a delicate texture and a clean, light scent. It’s low sudsing qualities and gorgeous lather make it the perfect shaving cream and base for many homemade cleaners and detergents. Depending on where you source your lard, you can also have confidence that there are zero added chemicals.
Our lard came from our two pasture raised, organic fed pigs. We vowed to waste nothing from these animals and so far we have been true to our word. I recently rendered the lard for this recipe, from a large bag of fat we had stored in the freezer.
Lard Soap Recipe ~ Makes 2.5LB of Soap
This recipe is very basic with only three ingredients. I want a pure base, so that I can be versatile with scents when I make my detergents and cleaners. You can add essential oils to this recipe simply by stirring them in just before you pour the soap into your mould.
Ingredients
2LB lard
12 oz water
4 oz lye
Supplies Needed
mason jar or large Pyrex measuring jug
large wooden spoons
immersion blender (optional)
goggles
rubber gloves
soap moulds (can be as basic as cardboard boxes)
Instructions
- Wearing gloves and goggles, pour cold water into a mason jar. Place jar in sink. Carefully measure your lye. Add the lye to the water slowly, stirring gently until dissolved. Do not splash the lye onto your body, it can cause severe burns. Don’t breathe in the fumes, ensure the room is well ventilated. Do not touch the jar. The chemical reaction makes this liquid very hot. Let it sit and cool.
- In a separate non aluminium saucepan (I use a large enamelled stock pot) heat your lard over low heat until it has melted completely. You can read about rendering lard from scratch here.
- When the lye mixture and the lard mixture are close to the same temperature (usually an hour for the lye but you can use a thermometer 120 degrees F) slowly pour the lye into the lard mixture, being careful to not splash.
- Stir, stir, stir, until the mixture thickens. If you are impatient like me, you can use an immersion blender to speed up the process. After 15 minutes the mixture will thicken and congeal. When you trace your blender or spoon through the mixture the pattern will stay (this is called trace). Keep in mind this can happen in a few minutes as well. Just keep stirring until you get trace.
- Pour your soap mixture into a greased or paper-lined soap mold. Gently tap mold to remove any air bubbles. I have cardboard boxes and trays that I line with wax paper. Nothing fancy required.
- Cover your soap with a blanket or towel and let stand for 24 hours.
- Turn soap out of mould. Wait another day, then cut into bars as desired.
- Dry bars for a few weeks (the longer the better), turning occasionally to ensure they are drying uniformly. You want the soap to harden sufficiently for grating if using for other recipes.
- Clean up. Wash your soap making equipment with hot soapy water and also rinse with a little vinegar to neutralize any traces of lye. Any wooden spoons that you use should be used only for soap making
Wonderful to see nothing is wasted! Good on you!
Thanks so much 🙂
Great simple recipe!
Do you ever add essential oils to your soap?
Hi Laura. Yes, normally I add essential oils to our soap. I didn’t with this lard soap recipe for more versatility but you could add some if you wanted to.
I love the simplicity. How do you use this in the laundry for example? Do you add different essential oils for hair and skin care?
I have also seen tallow balm recipes but not lard balm, is it at all possible?
You can make a laundry soap, it is a blend of borax,washing soda and lard. I haven’t made it myself but I see plenty of recipes and they say lard is a great option. Lavender is always nice with lard but you can use any essential oil blend you would like and absolutely! You can make a balm or salve with lard, if you follow a recipe for tallow it should work out to be very similar. You can make a lot of recipes with lard! Have fun!
Nice and easy recipe! I did however use too large of a bowl when mixing. Be sure to use a container that will be deep enough for your stick blender so it does not “spit” and create a mess!