Tallow vs mutton tallow in soap
Mutton tallow is the harder of the two: stearic acid is 33 % of it against 22.5 % of beef tallow, and on its own it scores 58 for hardness against 52. Its iodine value is lower too, 39 against 47. The calculator uses the same saponification value for both, so a swap changes neither the lye nor the superfat.
Edible Tallow (beef/mutton dripping) Mutton Tallow (sheep tallow) Compare them with other oils
The published figures
| Tallow | Mutton tallow | |
|---|---|---|
| Saponification value, mg KOH/g | 190–202 | 190–202 |
| Used by the calculator, mg KOH/g | 196.0 (midpoint) | 196.0 (midpoint) |
| SAP for NaOH, g/g | 0.1397 | 0.1397 |
| Iodine value, g I₂/100 g | 40–53 | 33.8–43.9 (typical 38.6) |
| INS (SAP − IV) | 150 | 157 |
| Melting point, °C | — | 43.1–51.1 |
| Unsaponifiable matter, % | ≤ 1.2 | — |
| Name on a soap label | Sodium Tallowate | — |
Each oil alone
| Tallow | Mutton tallow | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 52 | 58 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 4 | 3 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 43 | 41 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 4 | 3 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 48 | 55 | 16–48 |
A single oil’s hardness, cleansing and the rest are the same sums the calculator shows for a recipe, applied to that one oil. They explain what the oil brings to a blend; they do not predict how a soap of only that oil would feel.
Swapping one for the other
Gram for gram, tallow and mutton tallow take the same lye. For a kilogram of oil at a 5 % superfat, that is 132.7 g of sodium hydroxide for tallow and 132.7 g for mutton tallow.
In the bar below, where it is 35 % of the oils, weigh the lye for one and put in the other without recalculating, and the superfat moves:
| Lye weighed for | Oil used | Superfat |
|---|---|---|
| Tallow | Mutton tallow | 5.0 %barely moves |
| Mutton tallow | Tallow | 5.0 %barely moves |
The superfat is the share of the oils the lye leaves unsaponified, planned here at 5 %; below zero, there is more lye than the oils can take. Put the oil you actually have in the lye calculator and it works out the lye for that oil.
The same bar with either
The bar: 35 % of the one or the other, at a 5 % superfat, for 1,000 g of oils. The rest: 35 % olive oil, 25 % coconut oil, and 5 % castor oil.
| With tallow | With mutton tallow | Usual range | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium hydroxide, g | 141.0 | 141.0 | |
| Hardness | 44 | 46 | 29–54 |
| Cleansing | 18 | 18 | 12–22 |
| Conditioning | 51 | 50 | 44–69 |
| Bubbly lather | 23 | 22 | 14–46 |
| Creamy lather | 30 | 33 | 16–48 |
| Iodine value | 52 | 49 | 41–70 |
| INS | 156 | 159 | 136–165 |
| Linoleic and linolenic acid, % | 7.0 | 6.3 |
Fatty-acid profile
| Fatty acid | Tallow | Mutton tallow | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myristic acid | C14:0 | 4.0 (2–6) | 2.5 (2.2–2.8) |
| Palmitic acid | C16:0 | 25.0 (20–30) | 22.5 (20.3–24.6) |
| Palmitoleic acid | C16:1 | 3.0 (1–5) | 1.7 (0.9–2.5) |
| Stearic acid | C18:0 | 22.5 (15–30) | 33.0 (24.3–41.7) |
| Oleic acid | C18:1 | 37.5 (30–45) | 38.1 (31.4–44.8) |
| Linoleic acid | C18:2 | 3.5 (1–6) | 2.0 (1.6–2.4) |
| α-Linolenic acid | C18:3 n-3 | 1.5 (≤ 1.5) | 1.1 (1–1.2) |
| Arachidic acid | C20:0 | 0.5 (≤ 0.5) | 0.0 |
| Gadoleic acid | C20:1 | 0.5 (≤ 0.5) | 0.0 |
The figure the calculator uses for each oil, as a percentage of its fatty acids, with the published range in brackets.
Recipes with tallow
- Unna-style superfatted tallow bar 89 % of the oils
- Kitchen tallow bar 75 % of the oils
- Creamy tallow and olive bar 50 % of the oils
- Tallow and coconut laundry bar 50 % of the oils
- Transparent glycerin bar 50 % of the oils
- Long-lasting bar 45 % of the oils
Guides
Other comparisons
Where these numbers come from
Edible Tallow (beef/mutton dripping)
Section 3 GLC fatty-acid ranges (% of total FA) are mandatory; the Appendix table 'Chemical and physical characteristics' (relative density, refractive index, titre, saponification value, iodine value (Wijs), unsaponifiable matter) is ADVISORY. Later editorial amendments (2019+) not checked - FAO site Cloudflare-gated.
JP XVIII 'Beef Tallow' (Sevum Bovinum): melting point 42-50 C; acid value NMT 2.0; saponification value 193-200; iodine value 33-50.
Mutton Tallow (sheep tallow)
Table I 'Fatty acid composition and physical properties of mutton tallow' (kidney, back, intestinal, composite) and the abstract; full-text PDF opened at .../article/download/252/253 and read with pdftotext. Published 2003.
The source of the saponification value. Clause 2.4: edible tallow (dripping) is rendered from the clean, sound fatty tissues, attendant muscles and bones 'of bovine animals and/or sheep (Ovis aries)'. Appendix (advisory), tallow column: saponification value 190-202 mg KOH/g. Read from an Internet Archive capture of the FAO file with pdftotext.
Corroboration. The authors' own analyses, printed as saponification equivalents (grams of fat saponified by 56.1 g KOH; the book's formula: saponification value = 56,100 / equivalent). Mutton tallows: Australian 285 and 284.4, South American 284.5 and 285, North American 284.3, Selected English 283.9, i.e. 196.8-197.6 mg KOH/g; a second North American row printed '85' is a misprint. Beef and mixed tallows 283.6-286 (196.2-197.8). Primary laboratory data, a century old; the book's method (2-4 g of fat refluxed with semi-normal alcoholic potash, the excess titrated back against a blank) is in substance today's ISO 3657 / AOCS Cd 3-25.