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

mc_hudd, I don't know if you're still wondering and if this helps, but I've been using dishwasher detergent for a long time as a laundry booster. I started with the Great Value brand from WalMart since it had a good rating on performance in dishwashers, it was cheap, did not have the lemon scent and did not have bleach. It also has enzymes in it which is what I was looking for. I now have been buying SunSations brand from Walgreens, Dollar Tree or wherever else I can get it for about $1/box. Again, has enzymes, no lemon or bleach, cheap and works well. No problem with the clothes. I use about a cup or so in my top loader. This was an idea from some of the old-timers in the forum years ago (seems like they've most all departed) and it's definitely a keeper. Lately I haven't really had to use much and I don't know whether to credit that I switched to Tide Sensitive Skin, perfume/dye free or whether I just don't get my clothes as dirty or a combination. Sometimes I'd let it soak a while before washing, sometimes not. I still haven't gotten around to trying STPP, which could be of some help. I know the old timers swore by STPP.

I had this saved from a while ago as "Pan Release" on my hard drive. It works great! Always good to share info like this with folks who might have missed it! The original recipe is from recipezaar, and one of the notes said that "for baking recipes using chocolate you may use 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder in place of white flour or 1/4 cup each cocoa powder and flour --- this may be increased or decreased sucessfully just make certain that all three ingredients are the same amounts or the mixture will not work as well." NOTE: You can make half a recipe and it works well. Some folks have kept this in the fridge for a loooooong time, and it's still good! Recipe: 1/2 cup corn oil or canola oil or vegetable oil 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature (Crisco shortening is good) 1/2 cup all-purpose flour Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until mixture has increased in volume slightly and resembles marshmallow cream. Place in a container with a lid and store on the counter or in a cupboard (in hot weather it may be refrigerated). The mixture tends to separate slightly upon sitting in your cupboard or refrigerator so mix before using, then brush pans using a pastry brush or a clean paper towel. Smiles, Sooz Here is a link that might be useful: Pan Release -read the helpful notes under ratings

Home drain/sewage pipes are commonly coated with a black slimey sludge that resembles grease. It's bacteria/bio-slime, call it what you want. It sounds like you may have it in your toilet tank, which seems odd but I'm not a plumber. I'm surprised your plumber didn't mention it as a possibility. Try cleaning the affected area with a diluted chlorine solution (maybe 4 water to 1 chlorine) plus some dishwashing detergent. Scrub the affected area and let it stay on for 15-20 minutes before rinsing off. Wear rubber gloves. See if that helps. There are also some commercial products that can be used to clean off the slime but the bleach/water/soap combo often works.