As we had no money to buy fat with when I was a girl, we made our own by rendering it when we killed an animal. We cut off the fat, cleaned it up, and then cut it up finely with a knife. Then we put it in our big pots and cooked it until all that remained was the cracklings floating in the boiling fat. We drained off as much fat as we could, …showed first 75 words of 607 total…

…showed last 75 words of 607 total…if we had used fresh cracklings. Home made soap makes great pre-wash. Get the clothes damp and rub the soap bar on the bad spots. It works as well as the expensive stuff from the store. I've seen dozens of soap making recipes. But let me tell you, as an old soap making expert, I haven't seen any better soap made than the soap haven't manufactured with the three simple ingredients: fat, lye, and water.