What’s for dinner? An innocent question, right? Well, not if you’re friends with Aussie mum, Veronica Milsom, who recently whipped up some yummy homemade sausage rolls to bring around to her friends.
Who doesn’t love a dirty sausage roll every now and again? I mean, sure, it’s not the fanciest dinner party option, homemade sausage rolls can be divine if you make them right.
Which Veronica DID NOT.
You see, in addition to a sprinkle of salt, a dash of pepper and a bit of garlic to season, she added some fresh ol’ chunks of her placenta to really give it a kick.
AND THEN SERVED IT TO HER FRIENDS.
Zero waste, afterbirth included
Veronica, the mumma behind Zero Waste Baby, is all about living life with as little waste as possible and reusing whatever she can. She hopes to reduce her baby’s waste footprint and reuse as much as you can.
Including placenta.
She happened to have one laying around, thanks to the recent birth of her second child. And clearly throwing the thing out was out of the question.
Veronica had heard about the various ways you can reuse your placenta, if you are so inclined to do so.
I knew that women sometimes chose to have theirs dried up and ground down into pills, or to bury it in the garden, but I was imagining I could use it to cook up a dish,” she explained.
I considered a plas-agne (lasagna + placenta), or putting it on as topping for a pizza, but I landed on hiding it within pastry and making a pla-sausage roll.
That’s right: a placenta-infused sausage roll.”
Pla-sausage. Sounds tasty.
Veronica went to work preparing her dish and admits that it wasn’t all roses. Who woulda thought that cooking up your own afterbirth would be a tad weird??!!
Cutting up my placenta was as horrible as you can imagine. Like, cooking up yourself and having it come back into your nose. It’s disgusting.”
The placenta made a disgusting sizzling noise when cooked and as for the smell, as Veronica puts it, “I can’t even begin to describe.”
Excuse while I throw up in my mouth.
Placenta baked goods for everyone
Okay, so Veronica is certainly not the first person to eat her placenta. People do it ALL the time.
There is no proof it is beneficial and some studies suggest it’s actually really unhealthy, but, hey, to each their own. You do you, boo, even if you doing you means eating an organ strictly designed for birth. Whatevs.
But, what we especially love about Veronica is that she goes ABOVE AND BEYOND the everyday oddity of placenta eating by sharing this experience with two very open-minded friends.
Made with love, or something like that
As expected, the lucky food testers, Veronica’s former radio cohost Lewis Hobba and his girlfriend, an obstetrician Alex, weren’t super keen on the dish.
“Lewis basically swore from the moment I gave it to him. He couldn’t stop saying like ‘What the f–k happened to you growing up to make you like this?’” Veronica recalls.
Not the glowing sausage roll review she’d hoped for, but, hey, if she managed to keep her mates even after serving them placenta sausage, then we reckon she’s done pretty well.
Waste not, want not. And after this story, I can assure you, I’ll NEVER WANT A SAUSAGE ROLL AGAIN.
In all seriousness though, you should check out Zero Waste Baby podcast – it’s got some great tips on reusing all sorts of everyday items, besides your placenta.
