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RE: Pork Lard For Cooking, Frying and Baking, Rendered from Pork Back Fat
Nice!
Did you know lard makes the best lotion ever!
I generally try and use the lightest lard, but any will do. Melt it with beeswax and mix in the essential oils of your choice for smell and such. Truly the best lotion ever. Nothing I make or buy comes close.
I need to find some beeswax so I can try this!
You do! :D
If you dont have beeswax, you can do it without. The beeswax just helps maintain the creamy texture and keeps it stable, (no melting, etc.) But in the winter, you dont have to worry as much.
I make it in batches in coffee mugs. ( I have too many mugs and this is a great use for them!) I have one in my bedroom and in each bathroom, haha. I might have to make a post about this... I dont really measure though. I have neighbors who ask for this lotion from me because it is the best ever, and one lady gave some to her mom, (not tellingher what it was made of), and now her mom and sister are asking to buy some from me, haha!
Yes please! I'd like to read that post!
Strange question I guess but is pork fat the only kind that makes lard?
Haha, Ill have to do it one of these days.
Yes, only pork fat makes lard. Another good fat for lotion is tallow, which is beef fat. I used to make lotions with coconut oil and such, but they never really got the job done. Turns out, animal-fat based lotions actually do work better because the fatty acids in them are closer to what is produced by our own skin, (rather than plant based fatty acids), and so are absorbed better.
I have a free source of pig fat, (neighbors raise a couple hogs a year for meat and do not use any of the fat!!), so that's what I use all the time. If I had a source of free beef fat, I might try and make both and see what works best. It'd be an interesting experiment!
I see!! I wonder how well chicken fat would work. My extended family raises chickens.
I bet it would moisturize quite well. My problem with chicken fat is it smells like chicken. :/
At least with the pork, you can take the early, clearest fat and it wont smell too porky, essential oils will cover it up.
With the chicken fat, at least, in my experience, it comes out quite yellow and smelling very chickeny. But I bet it would work just fine...
No I did not know that! But I did notice that as I worked with the fat my hands were so well greased. It made me wonder how the lard would work as a salve, and I remembered reading that some people used to infuse herbs into lard and use that as their salves. I am curious to try some lard in my herb infused olive oils now, especially considering your advice!
Haha glad to help!
I thought it would end up being too greasy as a lotion, but it actually wasnt. You only need to use a little bit at a time and you stay moisturized. If it ends up being too greasy feeling for you, you can always substitute part of the lard for something else,like coconut, olive, avocado, or other oils. Its fun to play around with. I have not tried infusing herbs into my salves, but I think I should try that. Laziness I guess. Its just easier to drip in essential oils at the end, but you know, I bet the herbs are pretty great and beneficial in there. Ill have to try it!
This is great info, thanks @squishysquid! Do you find you need to use a separate pot that's not used for cooking when you are working with bees wax? I was thinking of logistics, I might even trying pouring oil into seperate containers on my wood stove and then mixing in bees wax and/or lard rather than making it all up in a pot.
I think it just depends on what all you are mixing together. I generally make my lotions with things that are edible, so I dont worry about cross contamination. Beeswax IS hard to wash off, but I generally just wipe out the pan when it is hot and that's it. If we eat some beeswax residue, it doesnt hurt anything.
Most of the time, I am making the lotion for our personal use, so I mix it directly in coffee mugs, (dont know if you read all the comments above, but I have too many of these, and they make a good size container that is not easy to tip). Im sure it's not recommended to use them this way, but what I do is place the mug onto the warming burner on the stove, add in beeswax and let that melt, then fill it up with lard, let that melt and mix it up real good. Then I remove from the heat. After it cools some, but before it solidifies, I add in essential oils. Then I usually stick it in the fridge since I dont want to wait all day for it to slowly cool off and solidify. We run through so much lotion that I just leave it out in a mug for people to use.
When I make it for other people, I basically do the same thing, but I make it in a little stainless steel pot instead, and when its done I pour it into cute little jars.
Wow fantastic! That all makes so much sense and very practical. Most of the salves I make would be edible as well and I like that reasoning. I also like the option of making it right in the final containers on a low heat.. I was thinking something similar. I may try both. Thanks for the inspiration and wisdom :)
Haha no prob!
I enjoyed your post as well!
Reminds me, I have a trash bag of unrendered pig fat in my freezer that needs taken care of.... Ugh!
Its been over a year since I had to lardify any, so the refresher was needed!
Happy new year!
Happy new year! How lucky to have all that fat waiting for you :)