Back to the Rustically Beautiful Basics

This was my first foray into crafting soap from animal fat. Why bother, you may ask? I could argue that it is part of my philosophy around sustainable living - using the whole of the animal and all that - but to be honest it was for two other reasons. 1. My mother suddenly got it into her head to make a "big batch" of tallow soap just like she used to do 35 years ago; and 2. I'd never done it before - perfect opportunity to try something new! There is a third reason - it was a wonderfully fun thing for my mum and I to do together.

Mum had been tirelessly scouring shops, supermarkets and butchers for tallow for a couple of weeks in vain. Perhaps it was the new packaging (brought in sometime during the last few decades) that threw her. With the help of some Aussie soapers from this Soap Making Forum we found it in the guise of a brightly red packaged block labelled Supafry.

Mum bought 3 kilos of it and announced her intention of making one of her "big batches", although she happily swapped the wooden stick she used to use for a stick blender.

Against popular procedure we poured the soap batter straight into a Tupperwear container without lining it as Mum assured me that's how she used to do it and it would pop out easily, which it did. It went through a very hot gel and was ready to unmould less than 24 hours later - in fact we could have unmoulded sooner as it was very hard.