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Perhaps the main thing about tallow is that there's a glut of it, likewise lard. People want more and more meat, but want it to be leaner, creating a surplus of
by analog31 4y ago
Perhaps the main thing about tallow is that there's a glut of it, likewise lard. People want more and more meat, but want it to be leaner, creating a surplus of tallow. Also, its use in deep fryers, e.g., by the fast food industry, was curtailed when vegetable oil became preferable in the market.
A relative of mine worked in a chemical factory in Detroit, that made lubricants for metal working. Many of them were either formulated directly from tallow and lard, or were soaps. The materials were cheap, they worked, and were considered to be relatively non-toxic.
One thing I've noticed is that detergent based "soap" has disappeared from the market. It used to be that you could get detergent bars that contained no soap. They also didn't produce soap scum in hard water areas. Remember, "You're not really clean until you're Zestfully clean." Well, Zest was a detergent bar.
Today, looking for detergent "soap" at the store, it's gone. Even Zest is made from lard or tallow, last time I looked at the ingredients. I've banned soap from my house because I hate cleaning up the soap scum. We use liquid body wash instead.
/rant
- giantg2 4y agoIsn't Dove a detergent?
- analog31 4y agoWell that's a nice surprise. Thanks for the tip.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- mastazi 4y ago> soap scum in hard water areas I have a question, I live in a soft water area so I'm not familiar with the problem. Would you have the same issue if you were using vegetable oil-based soap (e.g. Marseille soap, Castile soap etc.)? Or is any type of "fat" going to cause the same issue?
- jcampbell1 4y agoThey are all made from some type of oil/fat. Things with sulfate at the end of the ingredient don’t form soap scum, but classic soap made with fat and lye produce a salt of a fatty acid which combines with hard water to make soap scum.
- macinjosh 4y agoI live in a hard water area and use exclusively Castile soap in the house. I clean soap scum every time I wash the shower/tub.
- jcampbell1 4y agoI was curious, and found the ingredients for a 1992 bar of zest from an eBay photo. It was a mix of soap with the detergent sodium cocoglyceryl ether sulfonate. The current recipe is all soap but they added a couple of chelating agents: Pentasodium Pentetate, and Tetrasodium Etidronate. The problem with the new recipe is these chelating agents suck. The only thing that can jail Mg/Ca2+ faster than soap scum forms is sodium triphosphate, but that is no longer allowed and doesn’t belong in bar soap. It makes no sense that they changed the recipe. Detergent products have gotten so bad that I have started mixing my own. I add STP to laundry and dishwasher powder and I never rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. They come out sparkling. The whole phosphate thing is overblown. Phosphates promote algae growth, but the algae also breaks down loads of other contaminants. The problem can be mitigated with a simple fountain in the discharge pond. Removal of STP from everything is great for plumbers as pipes are now all lined with sticky soap scum which means periodic snaking.
- WalterBright 4y agoWhat is STP?
- jcampbell1 4y agoSodium triphosphate. It surrounds the Mg/Ca ions so they can’t transform the soap to soap scum which makes glasses cloudy and wastes soap.
- WalterBright 4y agothank you. I'm glad it isn't the STP you add to your oil-burning engine. P.S. Do you mean sodium tripolyphosphate?
- selimthegrim 4y agoYes they are the same.
- 4y ago