(I am overwhelmed by the generosity of my readers. Absolutely overwhelmed and amazed. Ellie and Cowboy's tent has been purchased in full. We all thank you.)
Several months back, maybe September-ish, I rendered some beef fat into tallow. The garden was in full swing, so I wasn’t making a big batch, just using some excess fat from a pile of steaks. I got a full cup which I promptly poured into a wide-mouth half-pint canning jar and placed it on the top shelf of the refrigerator. Where it eventually got pushed way into the back.
It’s a shallow but very tall refrigerator with glass shelves, and I thought I could see little beasties growing in the tallow jar. Oops, that might be a horrific fail.
I was definitely afraid to open the jar. But much to my delight, the little “beasties” must have been some harmless contaminants that somehow escaped my notice when I poured the tallow into the jar. The tallow had absolutely no off odor to it. In fact, I couldn’t smell anything at all. So the tallow was still good and I just had to wipe the black specks off the bottom of the tallow.
I should have rendered more tallow using the fat from other cuts of meat, but with the holidays I was just too busy. The freezers were full because of the side of beef we had just purchased, and I didn’t want to take up valuable freezer space with just some chunks of fat. Besides, we already had so many candles and so much cooking oil. I figured I didn’t really need it.
Unfortunately, I totally forgot that I wanted to make some lotion bars. I’m kicking myself just thinking of all that beautiful beef fat that I tossed so carelessly.
So when I spied the jar as I was cleaning out the refrigerator, I decided it was high time to make some lotion bars. Maybe I’d like these ones better than the ones I made several years back. And no, I don’t remember which recipe I used then. I do remember that the lotion bars felt a little sticky. I didn’t feel a need to repeat the experience. Until now.
Because the recipe for these lotion bars is incredibly simple and because I already have the ingredients. And because these common ingredients produce a wonderful lotion when we can’t buy any in the stores.
Here’s the recipe:
Lotion Bars
1 cup coconut oil
1 cup beeswax
1 cup tallow
Melt everything in a double boiler over low heat and stir occasionally until smooth. Pour into molds (I used an ungreased muffin pan) or Altoids tins, and stir in several drops of essential oils. (I used orange essential oil. It smells really good.) Let harden overnight and then pop them out (unless you’re doing it in official lotion/salve tins). The three cups of these ingredients (though you could use more or less, just keep the ratio 1:1:1) filled ten muffin pan cups to the top.
I find the consistency of these lotion bars to be absolutely perfect—not too hard and not too soft. If you find you want a harder bar, re-melt the lotion bars and add up to 25% more beeswax to the mixture. If you want a softer bar, re-melt and add up to 25% more coconut oil.
To use the lotion bar, rub it gently on your skin. Your body heat will soften the lotion and make it easy to rub in.
Family reviews: I really like it. I will not waste the beef fat anymore. In fact, I think I will make these for Christmas. Cheap, personal, handmade, and useful. What more could you ask for?
References:
https://practicalselfreliance.com/lotion-bars/
https://thehomesteadinghippy.com/tallow-lotion-bars/
2.5.22
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