2 cases of pork fat page

[ElaineC]

I picked up the first part of the pig I bought from the local farmer down the road, as they called to say the freezer is packed can I come. No prob says I, I can return next week for the stuff thats being smoked or turned into sausage. I asked for basically everything, and thats what I got - chops, roasts, ham steaks, feet and tails. And two cases of fat still on the skin.

What do I do with 2 cases of pig fat still on the skin? Render it down is the obvious answer, and use it for cooking, but this is a serious amount of pig fat. I must have 50lbs of the stuff, easily. Make soap is another answer, I've always wanted to give that a whirl. That might get me through oh, half a case.

I read on various sites how to render down the fat, but they all seem to imply that its only good for the standard "3 months in the fridge, 1 year in the freezer". Then other sites vaguely imply its good for years, stored on the pantry shelf. Anyone have any input? In the pantry on the shelf would be ideal.

Then there's the skin! All that lovely skin, some of it very thick though. Pork rinds?

Help!

[elorajade]

Yeah, pork rinds for sure. Cracklins etc.

If you need help formulating a soap, let me know, its what I do. And you could make a lot of soap, soap doesn't go bad.

[breadsauce]

Skin - cracklings. The fat freezes OK, but I do prefer to render it as fast as I can.

Sell rendered fat??!!

[ElaineC]

I would love help with soap, I have no clue at all about that. All I know is you render down fat, and add lye. And that if you add too much lye, its a bad thing :P

I have the most lovely feeling when I open my freezer, and see all that lovely critter Can't wait for the smoked stuff to arrive! But I do think breakfast is going to involve some attempt at using pork fat and skin. Mmmm.

[elorajade]

Once you render it down, just contact me. Pork fat would give you a super hard bar, but not very moisturizing and you wouldnt have too much of a lather. You'd want to add other oils to balance out the bar. Nothing fancy, just some olive oil and coconut oil. Then you'd want to play with smells too.

All oils take a different amount of lye to saponify the oil, so thats why you need to formulate a recipe. Once you have it down though, its a simple process.

From there you could make your own laundry soap, dish soap etc.

[iniQuity]

Uh render some and sell it? I'd buy some if it could be shipped over the border??