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Post by mohs on Jan 29, 2013 20:29:28 GMT -5
Mr Sgt. Edmo Rock'n Hearts, you are right it hurts to fry bacon or bologna in a pan without a shirt on. I only done this one time with the bologna. I was young and dumb but I did "learnt" Ya learnt nowya don't get burnt :nono: Ha Ha
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Post by helens on Jan 29, 2013 20:30:03 GMT -5
Kevin, that wasn't my recipe, and basically how one old timer made his with lard. That's the same soap Snuffy was talking about... lye soap:). It's how soap was made for thousands of years.
Soap was first discovered by man when they washed clothes/skins downriver from where they were burning off lots of bodies from a battle (there are many versions of this story). The bubbly water made everything cleaner.
They eventually figured out that ashes from woodfires produced something (Lye), that when mixed with fats (cooked bodies), produced a waxy portable substance that made things much cleaner (soap).
Soap's been basically made the same way ever since, by every culture on earth, at least til this century when they discovered chemicals. Today, we can buy our lye and don't have to filter it out of ashes, and we can buy our lard without rendering it ourselves. But plenty of people still make handmade lye soap.
As for what you smell like? Even heavily scented lye soap that smells heavenly will not last on your skin very long. After using chemical soap for a long time, you'll be disappointed that the real deal doesn't keep you smelling like perfume. What you smell like after less than an hour after bathing is human. Which will probably make your wife want to tear your clothes off and throw you on the bed, since human scent is masked so well by the chemicals in our detergents and soaps. This scent is very different from armpit, stinky feet or sweat. THAT smell comes from bacterial processes on the skin. Natural clean human smell is actually incredible... new baby head is an example of human scent.
I'm happy to tell you how to make soap, you may find it great fun to make your own:).
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,178
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Post by jamesp on Jan 30, 2013 8:07:36 GMT -5
This is the best thread on the whole forum.Mom had an aluminum container that was the size of a small coffee can with a screw cap i believe.I always wondered why it wasn't refrigerated. I really like the depth of Helen's attacks on a(this) subject.Marvelous,go Helen!If you give me any soap made out bacon grease don't take it personally if ,uh,get sick to my,you know.
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Post by helens on Jan 30, 2013 10:22:13 GMT -5
LOL! I don't make soap with bacon grease, I just said you could. Any fatty acid can produce soaps, with different properties. MOST of my soap are veggie soaps with palm, coconut and avacado oils. I'm just fascinated with things as close to nature as possible. From old perfumes (which were made with plant oils not chemicals) to rocks:).
It just dawned on me when you said that, that when people think of handmade soap, they think of that silly movie Fight Club. No one in their right mind would go through the trouble of rendering any kind of fat, which would take hours to days, when they can buy a 50 lb tub of lard at Walmart for under $20. There are purists and colonial reinactors who do that for show, along with hand salting, tanning and stretching hides, but today, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a practical perspective.
I knew a woman who refused to waste the fats from bears and other game her family hunted, as well as making tallow (beef fat), so she'd do all that rendering of the fat herself, but she was really rare among soapmakers, most of whom have no access to making their own oils of any type. I admire that tho. I'd be rendering my own fats if I actually had any to render.
But if you have pounds of lard already sitting on your stove that is more than you can use, rendering's done, you just have to filter it, add lye, and you have soap:).
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garock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2006
Posts: 1,168
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Post by garock on Jan 30, 2013 10:57:17 GMT -5
Ms Helen, I remember my Aunt Frannie making soap from lard. I thought is was so cool. The family lived on a farm out from Phenix City Alabama. I can close my eyes and think of her and see her curning the butter out of whole milk. The family rarely bought groceries at store. She lived to be 93 years old. Hated an electric stove and I never saw her use it. She always used the wood stove even in the summer.
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Post by helens on Jan 30, 2013 11:36:55 GMT -5
Soapmaking is a dying craft... the amount of time and hand labor to make a bar of soap means that the time/cost is high, and you compete with chemical bars that sell for $.50. No one can actually do that, when you consider the high cost of oils, plus the hours of hand labor involved.
It's pretty ironic, because lotions and creams use only 10% oil and 80-90% water, and sell for up to $100 an oz... vs 10x the same ingredients in a good handmade soap.
I wish I had an old wood stove!!! Maybe someday:).
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Post by mohs on Jan 30, 2013 12:33:58 GMT -5
i think we ought a change the subject to soapstone
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Post by mohs on Jan 30, 2013 12:34:29 GMT -5
mostly
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bushmanbilly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2008
Posts: 4,719
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Post by bushmanbilly on Jan 30, 2013 14:21:03 GMT -5
I knew a woman who refused to waste the fats from bears
Smart lady. Bear grease is very good for ya. Also keeps you warm in cold weather. Its a know fact that if a trapper did not get a bear in the fall. He would not spend the winter in the bush. Bears have a layer of fat on there backs up to 4" thick before they den up for the winter.
I try to cook with lard as much as possible. Try frying fish with oil and then with lard. Night and day. Lard hands down. And you can't make real banic with out lard.
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Post by mohs on Jan 30, 2013 14:48:01 GMT -5
Lunch time...
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jan 30, 2013 15:04:43 GMT -5
Mmmmmmm, bacon.... We actually had BLTs for lunch one day while we were at Quartzsite, made with leftover bacon from breakfast. 'Cept, I didn't toast the bread - lol! Jean
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snuffy
Cave Dweller
Member since May 2009
Posts: 4,319
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Post by snuffy on Jan 30, 2013 15:18:49 GMT -5
Aw man,come on May and June,fresh homegrown tomato,bacon,swiss,mayo sandwiches!! :drool: :drool:
snuffy
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,687
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Post by Fossilman on Jan 30, 2013 16:00:06 GMT -5
Aw man,come on May and June,fresh homegrown tomato,bacon,swiss,mayo sandwiches!! snuffy Dang it,Now I have to head over to the butcher shop for some bacon!!! Swiss cheese,does it get any better....
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Post by mohs on Jan 30, 2013 20:18:40 GMT -5
I prefer this but that requires a kitchen :nono: so this is actually pretty nifty and I can crisp my bacon with out a shirt on Ha Ha
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Post by cpdad on Jan 31, 2013 21:12:34 GMT -5
i was talking to my brother today...he is 10 years older than i am....and jars of grease came up ;D....i brought it up actually ;D.
and as someone else mentioned...he reminded me that our mom used to raise standard poodles and used bacon and other leftover grease to make them eat...and she thought that it made her poodles have shinier coats.
after my dad died...and she had not so much help with the poodles....she decided not to go the dog thing alone since the standard poodle could get really mean....and bite me and my little brother...just cause they wanted to ;D.
my wife ....wants soup bone now....i dont know proper name....its the bone with the marrow in the middle for soup....i have to go to the other side of town....stupid grocers dont sell it round here...kev.
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Post by Rockoonz on Jan 31, 2013 22:01:24 GMT -5
For bacon lovers. If ever in Portland OR you must go to Voodoo Donuts Home of the bacon maple bar.
Lee
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