Bacon Soap

Sometimes, doing good for the planet can manifest in strange and surprising ways.  One example of how Jounce High students are creatively transforming one person’s waste into another person’s treasure:  Bacon Soap.

Our first batch of Bacon Soap, made from waste grease collected at FUMC Pancake Day

Volunteers at FUMC pancake day cook a LOT of bacon.  In the early spring of both 2024 and 2025, each time, Jounce students reclaimed 15 gallons of grease and repurposed it as a primary ingredient in craft soap.  This is no small chore; making decent soap from dirty grease is a LOT of work. 

Jounce students started our journey into soapmaking with a brief speculation on how the first soap was likely discovered: drippings of animal fat mixed must have mixed wood ash alkali from the fire below, and then when combined with water, would impart bubbles that must have fascinated prehistoric man.  This imaginative historical scenario helped us frame our understanding when we took a closer look at the modern chemistry of triglycerides, alkali and saponification. We learned about how there are a wide range of naturally-derived fatty acids, different sources of alkali, and how they all lend different qualities to the final product.  For example, an olive-oil based soap made with potassium hydroxide will yield a conditioning liquid soap, while a coconut oil soap made with sodium hydroxide will produce a cleansing, hard bar of soap. The best soaps are often a combination of fatty acids that create a balanced bar that is both cleansing, conditioning and even a little bubbly. 

Soaps from animal fats like lard already need to be processed, or rendered to produce a clean and refined oil that can be made into soap.  Grease from cooking fats needs even more processing to remove unwanted residual compounds that negatively affect the soap.  Washing grease is by far the most challenging part here.  Bacon grease needs to be washed at least 4 times before it’s ready to use as an ingredient in soap. 

Washing bacon grease involves boiling it with water, changing water often until it becomes clear of impurities. Jounce students were largely spared from the task. 

With clean grease, we were ready to experiment with different recipes.  After a few weeks of trial and error, we landed on a recipe that included 30% coconut oil to boost cleansing properties, sweet orange essential oil for smell, and 1% castor oil to impart a bubbly experience. We even made independent creamy white and madder root powder red-colored batches and layered them in the molds to create a bar that looks like bacon. 

Two separate batches of soap, soon to become one. 

Alternating layers of creamy white and red layers in the soap molds

Over two sessions, students made 120 pounds of soap bars, later cut and left to cure over the summer break.  These bars were later wrapped in paper the students made themselves out of old cotton t-shirts (more on this later) before being offered for sale for $5 each. When all bars sell, the students will have generated up to $1800 profit from a $200 investment in materials.  

Final Product: A single bar of bacon-grease derived soap, wrapped in old t-shirt derived paper

In many ways, soap making is a perfect interdisciplinary high-school project. Soap making is a precision process that requires careful measuring of ingredients, respect for safety, and at least an introductory understanding of the chemical reactions that make it possible. At the same time, it’s a canvas for creative expression, that requires an artful intuition and persistence when the results aren’t always what was expected.  It’s also an opportunity to extract some serious value from a very serious waste.