My first thoughts were about an old recording from 1952 called "It's In the Book" with a song at the end called "Grandma's Lye Soap."

I can't embed the video here, so I put it on a blog I have for random things like this.

Nell

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandma's Lye Soap

Wow, Annie, that's kind of an unusual soap recipe there. I've seen a few soap recipes, but I don't think I've ever seen ammonia or kerosene used before. I know you're not a chemist or anything, but do you have any idea why these two things are added? The borax is surprising too.

Have you found it hard to buy lye, thanks to the meth lab idiots?

ThinMan

The Chemistry of Annie's Lye Soap:

The Lye reacts to the grease or fat molecules to become soap. (molecular reaction of the Lye to the positive and negative charges on each end of the Fat Molecules).
The borax is added as a softening agent/a wetting agent or a 'surfactant'. (Makes your clothes and skin softer and helps rinse cleaner).
The ammonia is a cleaning agent.(suds)
The kerosene...I think this is for cutting grease. (you do not have to add this to the recipe, but it is a great booster)

How's that?

Sometimes finding Lye for my soap recipe can be tricky, but I get it at my friendly neighborhood grocer's! Good old Red Devil's Lye. Now finding the pure stuff, without metal bits, is the tricky part these days as it is used as a drain cleaner.

Not a LYE: If I made my own lye, this recipe would be the same as Grandma's Old Lye Soap of bye gone days.
You can make your own Lye out of wood ashes. It is a long process, done outside in a big kettle over an open fire. If I had to, I could make it. I just hope that day never comes, but I could...or you could. :)

~Annie

P.S. - You MUST follow the recipe exactly.

1. Too much lye will not have enough fat to latch on to and will burn the fire out of you. It will never completely become inert. (Lye or some other Alkali in soap is what causes soap to burn our eyes. Your skin has enough oils on it to protect us from the ph reaction from the lye, but your eyes don't.)

2. Too much fat, and the soap with not clean. It will just be greasy.

So, if you try this recipe, please follow the recipe amounts and steps EXACTLY! It is safe if you do.

~Annie

I have the kettle, and the wood ashes, but not 5 cups of meat grease. If it ever comes to where I have to make my own soap, I guess I'll have to boil down a nice greasy opossum, which I can catch in my handy armadillo trap.

It's a good idea these days to have contingency plans, just in case.

Nell

Nell,

You can substitute a can of LARD, sold in the same section as Crisco shortening. Lard is just rendered animal fat. It makes lovely white soap. Or you can shoot a wild boar and render your own animal fat. :)

~Annie

Annie, I have been making soap for a year or so. I love doing it and have found that it is really better for your skin..no winter white, itchy skin with it.

Your recipe is exactly like Mom's old laundry soap recipe except for the kerosene.

I save all grease for soap making and had the meat processor save the beef fat and pork fat when we butchered last. I rendered both for soap making.

Now that I have the cow, I am making some milk soap. Also buy the canned Goat's milk for a Milk and honey recipe I do.

I love doing everything I can from scratch and recycling everything possible...makes me feel good. I should have been born in pioneer times.

Adding coconut oil to the soap will increase the bubbles and you can buy it in the stores right above the lard.

So that's how it's made.

Is the soap smelly if the grease is smelly? Like bacon grease?

It smells like Lye Soap, but not meat greases.
I save all of the following greases and oils:

Bacon Grease
Hamburger drippings from my grill pan
Ground Beef grease
Shortening and/or oils used for frying meats.
Oils used for any kind of fast frying (donuts, french fries, etc).
Meat greases rendered from roasts (beef, pork, etc)
and so forth.

I don't fry very often, but I still save the oils and grease. It adds up faster than you might think!
NEVER dump grease and oils down drains. Not only does this stop up sewer lines and septic systems, but it is a major cost to the public in city sewage systems repairs and maintenance and sewage processing plants. It pollutes the land and water systems...kills fish and other wildlife, creates algae in water ways, and more. Awful stuff.

The chemical action in the soap making process removes the smelly odors of meat greases. Make sure you strain it well to remove all the bits and pieces. I just use my kitchen sieve.

The soap will not LOOK like commercial stuff. Those are mostly detergents. This soap is wonderful. Leaves your skin soft. Gentle on clothes. The two commercial soaps that I know that are REAL SOAP are Castile and Ivory (or Ivory used to be real soap anyway).

For JUST hand soap, you can add a little glycerin (found at all RX drug store counters), and omit the Kerosene.

OPT. - Kerosene is not necessary for the recipe to work, but it makes the laundry soap better. Boosts the cleaning power.

As mentioned above, you can add coconut oil (and/or other fancy oils) to make it more sudsy and feel softer.
But, the purpose of this topic is HOW TO USE old MEAT GREASE that you should not put in your compost.

There are all kinds of soap recipes on the internet. I've tried a few. The thing I object to in these NEW recipes is the cost and waste. Those fancy oils are EXPENSIVE. Cheaper to buy commercial soap and be done with it.

Hope this explains my purpose in posting this topic:

***Recycling old meat grease rather than throwing it into the garbage that will go into land fills***

We can greatly reduce the amount of trash and garbage that goes into land fills (millions of tons of garbage dumped on the land and in the ocean )just in America) just by practicing the three "R's" of waste management for good conservation - REDUCE -> REUSE -> RECYCLE ->

Don't waste food! Use those leftovers and compost your kitchen garbage. Many household items that most Americans tend to just toss in the garbage daily can be REDUCED, REUSED, and RECYCLED, including clothing, buttons, zippers, snaps, hook and eyes, and other items just in our households alone. Good conservation practices not only saves the Earth by preventing pollution and conserves our natural resources, but it will save each of us MONEY, not only collectively as a society, but in each household!

There is an old Mormon saying: "A woman can throw it out the window with a teaspoon faster than a man can pitch it in the front door with a shovel." - Brigham Young, 1860.

This is so true.
~Annie

While I've only made soap once I wonder about these directions.

"2. Dissolve Borax in (1) cp of cold water and slowly stir into Lye mixture.
3. In a plastic dish tub, slowly dissolve the can of lye in 1 quart of cold water stirring constantly with the wooden spoon until thoroughly mixed. (Caution: It will get hot)"

I think one should first dissolve the lye in the quart of water then add the borax water. Otherwise there will be a very large explosion of lye if one adds one cup of borax water to the dry lye. I think item 3 should be 2 and vice versa. Lye is very dangerous unless handled properly.

luckygal,

My bad! You are so right! I guess I got them in the wrong order. I missed that typing mistake. OMG!
Thank you so much!!!

PLEASE everyone!!!.
Please take note to FIRST Dissolve the lye into the one (1)quart of water in the plastic tub, and THEN dissolve the borax in a separate cup of water and slowly stir that mixture into the lye mixture.

Thank you so much for that heads up.

Annie

Wow,

Thanks for posting this and answering all the hard questions - something I might try later this summer. I just need enough grease, now - lol. We don't eat too many fried foods.

I already have been making my own laundry soap this last winter (so have the borax already) I guess why not try making soap too!

Sorry; I can't get past the spreading-bacon-grease-on-my-skin-to-(clean?!)-it thing, and all the stuff-in-jars-that-usually-have-skull-and-crossbones-on-them that it takes to actually make this soap. Wow.

But the milk soaps intrigue me...

And one would guess that there's no smoking allowed while you're showering with this stuff.