"Back in the Day"

"Back in the Day" people knew how to live of the land, for real. They would wake up with the sun and start their day. Seldom would one hear those dreadful words, "I'm bored" that have become such a common utterance in our world today. Between too many episodes of "Little House on the Prairie", the ever increasing worries about the economy, growing concerns about the ingredients in the products available at the local grocery store, the increased use of pharmaceuticals, and my own boredom, my mind has set off on a rabbit trail...


So, today I clarified bacon fat for soap. It is the first step in my process of learning how to make soap. I want to learn how to make it with ingredients that I would not have to purchase. After all, If I could go to the store to buy the ingredients, then why wouldn't I just buy a bar of soap. The idea here is to live off the land.

Well anyway, looks like the drippings from one pound of bacon produce enough clarified fat for about one bar of soap. I put the drippings in a plastic container in the fridge where it hardened into a nice clean BACON smelling chunk of fat. I am a little worried that my soap will smell like bacon.

I have done some reading and have been lead to believe that handcrafted soap is better for our skin. My son has eczema and this would be very nice for him. However, just because it is written, does not make it so. I will have to maintain my wait and see attitude.

There is much to learn about making soap from scratch. Not only is there Clarifying fat, but apparently I should try Rendering fat. Then there is the scarey process of making Lye or Sodium/Potassium Hydroxide or even NaOH if you prefer. It's all the same stuff and it is supposedly required in all soap. Mix a little fat together with some lye, throw in some rain water and there you go...soap.

Without adding some sort of fragrance, I do wonder what this soap will smell like. I want my soap to smell like...soap. I wonder if they have essential oil that smells like soap or does the lye take away the bacon smell and turn it into that classic soap smell. I was looking on the internet for different recipes and I ran across a picture of some soap shaped and colored like bacon. I didn't feel very encouraged about my soap losing that bacon smell after that.

Well that's all I have to say about soap for now.