To Make Soap, First We Render Fat

A little gross yes, but using rendered fat (tallow) in your soap will give it a creamyness that no vegetable fat can compare to. You can use waste fat that you've been cutting from your meats (and freezing of course), or you can visit the butcher. If you can, get suet from the butcher shop. Suet is the white fat that forms around the kidneys. It is renouned as the creme de la creme of soap fats, 10lbs should be sufficient to get a good start on soapmaking. 

Rendering fat basically means that you are taking the fat that you have, waste fat or suet, boil it down with a bunch of water until it's liquid. Then you strain it through a mesh strainer to get out all of the meaty bits. Strain it into a 12 Quart plastic container with a lid, like a rubbermaid. That's about it. Make sure you add a lot of water when boiling it, as much as you want as the fat and water will separate when it cools. Add peanut butter and bread crumbs to the leftover meaty bits and pack it into pine cones to make birdfeeders. This brought Blue Jays to my yard!

Put the container in the fridge overnight. In the morning you will have a solid block of tallow on top and all of the water you added will be at the bottom. You may have to shave off a few grainy bits but don't worry too much about it. Cut up the tallow and put it into freezer bags until you're ready to make soap. It's worthy to get yourself a good soap making book. The one I have is called The Complete Soapmaker.

Tallow