You will need the following:
- Bacon
- Sieve or colander
- Cheesecloth or paper coffee filters
- Jars with lids (ideally mason jars)
- Optionally ziploc bags for freezing
The process:
- Cook your bacon, preferably in a cookie sheet. Using a cookie sheet allows you to collect lard with less impurities.
- Drain the lard from the cookie sheet into jars.
- When a jar is full, simmer in a pot of water to slowly melt the lard until it is fully transparent (about 45C/110F). The slow melt allows most of the impurities to fall to the bottom of the jar.
- Slowly pour the top clear lard into another jar. Stop pouring when you see impurities in the pouring lard. Let the lard cool down or place in the refrigerator for a few hours. You can keep it in the refrigerator or in Ziploc bags in the freezer until you are ready to make soap.
- When preparing to make soap, melt the lard using the same method as step 3. This time warm it to 50C/120F which is warm enough to prevent it from solidifying in the filter. Filtering a full mason jar may require two coffee filters. It’s time to change the filter when the flow slows to a drip every 3-5 seconds.
- Once it has been filtered it is ready to pour for measuring the weight for your soap recipe.