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Eddie Lin is a food blogger, writer, and judge based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a father of two girls and a devoted husband.
So devoted, in fact, he requested that the hospital give him his wife’s placenta after she gave birth to their second daughter, Phoebe.
Eddie’s wife, Diane, had had a fairly difficult pregnancy. She experienced incredible fatigue, a dangerous breech birth, and was at risk of developing postpartum depression. Eddie was willing to do anything to help his wife recover as soon as possible – including cooking her placenta to replenish her body with hormones, iron, and other nutrients.
“The purported benefits for mothers who consume their placenta include the increase of important hormones like oxytocin, decrease in severity of postpartum depression, replenishing iron to help with energy recovery, and increased lactation,” Eddie explained.
Once Eddie took the placenta home, he discussed with his mother – who had prepared a variety of traditional Chinese medicines in the past – how to best prepare the placenta without killing off any of its essential nutrients.
They ultimately decided to prepare it like medicinal Chinese chicken soup.
Eddie carefully dug through the placenta to find the “tender, fleshy, usable bits,” and then began cooking.
In a large pot of water, Eddie and his mom cooked about 2 ounces of placenta, fresh ginger, salt, a drizzle of sesame oil, and rice wine. They waited until the placenta was cooked to a dark brown color, then declared it done.
When Eddie brought it to the hospital, everyone thought he’d just brought his wife homemade chicken soup.
The verdict?
Diane was slightly dubious before she took her first sip, but then she declared, “Pretty good.” She polished off the rest – leaving her husband just one taste.
For those of you who are curious, properly cooked placenta is similar to beef, but more delicate. It has a subtle taste; “soft notes that suitably matched its gentle textures. One spoonful was all I got and needed. There was nothing offensive about it. Actually, it was quite ordinary, sort of beefy, and not the exotic taste I was imagining,” Eddie described.
As for his wife: Diane felt significantly better within the next two days.
