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Since this thread seems to talk about religion as well as soap I thought I would add this. My small church made a cookbook many years ago and gave them away to all of the Ladies of the Church as a gift. Everone put in their favorite recipes. One older Lady Hanna Anderson put in her recipe for Homemade soap. Here it is

5 1/2 lbs grease [ Lard or fryings with the salt removed ]
1 can lye
1 cup borax and ammonia

In 3 pints water, dissolve lye - cool
Melt grease and cool- slowly add borax and ammonia [ a cup detergent may be added ]
Add lye and stir for 1/2 hour with wooden spoon.
Pour into Enamaled tray, paper box or wooden box
Let set for a couple of days--cut

Note: Mix lye and water slowly - will foam up.
Use enamaled vessels for all

The book was printed in 1988, Hanna has been gone low these many years now, she was a wonderful Christian Lady. Her soap may live on

I have no idea how to remove salt from grease, I am afraid that Hanna took that secret with her to the grave. I did copy the recipy word for word, it was written on a typewritter in 1988, and photo copyed. We did not have computers back then. The photo copied pages when then put into a 3 ring binder, quite a unique gift for the church members, vertually no cost except for paper and we still have it today. Nice to pass things along. Glad you all enjoyed it, Hanna is smiling I am sure

I've got a recipe for diy hand lotion, if anyone wants it.

MM, I'd love that recipe. I'm really trying to stop buying stuff I can make. I love Kelli's laundry detergent deal. I went to be thinking about it last night, how that big plastic jug of detergent I buy for some ridiculous price is like, one of the last products like that that I still buy. You know, big ol jug of mystery stuff with a cute name, that kind of thing. I want out of that cycle, for sure.

I'm not sure if it will remove the salt, but you can purify most fats by just boiling them in water, then re-congealing in the fridge. The contaminants drop out in the water, and the fat floats and solidifies all clean on top of the water.

Hey Kelli, where did you find the washing soda and Fels Naptha? I looked in a couple grocery stores here, but didn't find any. They had Borax in small boxes, but I'm hoping for the big boxes. Please don't send me to Walmart.

Matt, I saw both Borax and washing soda at Meijer a few days ago. They also carry Fels Naptha bars. Of course I try to remember to get that sort of stuff while I'm at Rural King, since the price on anything seems to be about 10% less there than any other place I shop.

The ingredients have been collected for a couple of weeks now. I'm assuming the roommate used the last of the commercial laundry detergent while I was gone, so it's time to whip up a batch of the DIY type. {wondering if all the plastic bottles went to the recycle center already}