Talk:Rocky Mountain oysters

message: Cows are female surely?
: I removed "Or Cows" as the cattle page clearly states that "Cow" is an exchangeable term when there is ambiguity, e.g. look at that cow! Well, we are talking about Bovine testicles which specifically means Bulls. 68.102.171.147 (talk) 06:15, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, kind of.  That said, it is quite common to refer to cattle as cows.  But when talking about only male cattle, then the word "cow" should not be used.  That said, the term "bull" refers to mature male cattle.  I know of nobody who usually waits until a calf matures before castrating it.  Since a primary reason for castrating is to make the meat less tough, why would one wait to castrate the animal until it gets tough? 65.68.190.213 (talk) 03:56, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cows testicles?

message: No, it is not just you:
I raised my eyebrows at 'Prairie Oysters' being listed as these testicle dishes. Indeed, in the play 'Cabaret', very well-known, two glasses of 'Prairie Oysters' are whisked up on stage and consumed, and are described by one of the actors as "Just a raw egg whooshed around in some Worcester sauce".
I think 'Prairie Oysters' should be removed from this list unless justification is obtained.
:What is this comment all about?  I was surprised to find that the page wasn't titled 'Prarie Oysters'.  That is the only name I have ever heard them called.  Who ever speaks of a "Rocky Mountain" oyster?  I always assumed prarie oyster was the most dominant name of any variants.  Maybe they call them something different outside of Canada though...
:☭ Zippanova 06:01, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have never heard them called 'Prairie Oysters' either.  Here in Oklahoma we either call them calf fries, hog fries or lamb fries (depends on what kind of testicle we're talking about here).  We also call them Mountain Oysters or Rocky Mountain Oysters.  T. White 09:10, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

text: A simple google search can confirm that it's a common enough name. 216.135.89.138 16:10, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

text: I've never once heard the term "Prairie Oyster" used as a form of bull testicles. Every time I've heard the phrase, it's been an anti-hangover concoction. I've heard Rocky Mountain Oysters as testicles, but never Prairie Oysters. Just my two cents on the issue. -24.27.62.134 04:31, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

text: I lived in Wyoming and Colorado, both places calling them "Rocky Mountain Oysters." For whatever reason, I did not see this food discussed when i lived in California. However I HAVE heard of "Prairie Oysters," one time, in some early Simpsons/Bart related book that was filled with all sorts of sillyness. 74.128.56.194 (talk) 23:26, 27 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prairie Oysters 

message: They're not too common here in the UK. In fact I've never seen one (except in its uncooked, attached state). Is it possible for anyone to put an illustrative photograph on this article? --JamesTheNumberless 14:10, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Illustration 

message: This article is SO wrong for countries outside the US.  
It's totally not true to say that in all other countries testicles have different names, or that it's a matter of confusion to call Sheep's testicles "mountain oysters" - both lamb and goat testicles have been going by that name in New Zealand for decades (since before the second world war as far as I'm aware, so it's not that likely to have migrated from the US). The term pops up in a number of travel guides, both online and in print, and was recently used in the film Black Sheep. 
Sweetmeats in Commonwealth countries is an old term for sweets (like, desserts/candy), sometimes confused with sweetbreads which refers to the pancreas. Sweetmeats has never referred to cooked testicles except by mistake AFAIK.
I believe that because of the demand for Rocky Mountain Oysers at tourist joint in the states, a number of other cattle producing countries ship them over, including New Zealand, Australia and Costa Rica.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.111.249.157 (talk) 01:08, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Worldwide 

message: Before we go any further, let me clarify that we do not eat testicles here in California. Thank you.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vayne (talk • contribs) 06:43, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: F***ing LOL!  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.168.131.203 (talk) 02:18, 14 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wait wait... 

message: In my father's generation (first half of 20th century) the term 'mountain oysters' was used in northern Missouri even though there are no mountains there. If a man was hired for a half day or day to help at a family farm that was castrating a lot of swine that day, he might be offered the testicles as pay, instead of cash. Publius3 (talk) 11:26, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  used as barter 

message: Macrakis removed the following text, saying it was 'nonsense':
"When you eat a Rocky Montain Oyster, you are eating part of an animal that is still alive. This is not true for any other popular North American food."
Although poorly worded -- and perhaps not accurate -- this is not nonsense. It can be understood to mean that when you eat one of these things, the animal from which it was cut is still itself alive.
Someone may wish to re-word this and restore it. To be strictly accurate, a reworded version would need to say that the animal from which testicles had been cut _might_ still be living at the time the testicles were cooked and eaten. (In fact, typically -- but not always -- the animal would still be living.)  Perhaps more to the point editorially, no citation has been provided to establish factuality that this situation is unique. Apparently the writer could not think of any other example, but that alone does not establish uniqueness.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Publius3 (talk • contribs) 14:45, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  it wasn't really 'nonsense' that Macrakis removed 

message: That part about the animal's being alive is kinda interesting . . .  hadn't thought of that. And is this dish really 'offal'? Given the definition, which includes entrails, which it ain't, and internal organs, which it ain't (quite, quite external!), maybe not  . . . .  Don't mind me . . . i'm from Colorado! And . . . i'm thinkin' the folks from New York might want to add another article about "Prairie Oysters" as referenced in "Cabaret," the hangover cure, egg in Worcestershire sauce. (Oh yum!)  Betswiki(talk) 17:28, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  thoughts of a Westerner 

message: In the episode of Futurama entitled, The Problem With Poplars, Leela claims that the name Tasticles sounds too much like "those frozen Rocky Mountain oysters on a stick, testsicles." I don't really know if it's article-worthy (maybe a pop-culture reference) so I just thought I'd mention it here. JediRogue (talk) 08:27, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Futurama reference 

message: Taste, texture, etc.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.191.115.238 (talk) 05:58, 9 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  But what are they actually like to eat? 

message: Why isn't this term more prominent, I've never heard them called RockyMountain oysters. Heck there's a band named after Prairie Oysters.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.90.93.21 (talk) 22:14, 20 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. While someone, somewhere, might mistakenly call these prairie oysters, it is definitely undue weight to mention it in the lead sentence as a well-known alternative. The vast majority of reliable sources for the term "prairie oyster" refer to the drink; in fact, I actually can't find a single one that refers to bovine testicles. Kafziel Complaint Department: Please take a number 22:19, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

text: The Oxford Companion to Food gives 'prairie oyster' as one of many euphemisms for testicles as food. The Oxford English Dictionary gives both the drink and the testicles as definitions of 'prairie oyster'. --Macrakis (talk) 22:57, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prairie Oyster?? 

message: Where i am from in Idaho, Utah, Colorado and the Wyoming area i was raised calling calf testicles "Rocky Mountain Oysters".  When i was young we would castrate our bull calves and throw the testicles in five gallon buckets and then later peel and deep fry the testicles for a late lunch after castrating.  They are a very fine meat that when breaded and deep fried are very tasty.  As for the meat that makes up a testical, being still alive, that is a myth that i have never heard of. Meat that is  detached from it's blood supply is surely going to die.166.230.216.103 (talk) 04:56, 11 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Here in the Texas Panhandle, the term "Calf Fries" is used far more often than "Rocky Mountain Oysters".  I know some people who really like calf fries with cream gravy and biscuits for breakfast. Also, before now I never heard anyone refer to lamb fries as Rocky Mountain Oysters in either Texas, Oklahoma, or New Mexico.  The term has always been used to refer to testicles from bull calves.  By the way, on the main page it refers to calf fries as being only from young calves.  In reality, it would be rare to castrate adult bulls -- I'm sure it happens on rare occasion but I've never seen it done.  We usually castrated ours at about 300 to 400 pounds and the testicles were calf fries. 2001:1890:1263:AFD:F81B:80A8:EDBD:853E (talk) 19:15, 22 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rocky Mountain Oysters 

message: I think it would serve us all quite well to add in a section stating, very simply, that over time and region these terms have meant very different things, and its an ongoing slang, not a fixed definition. There are a number of human-oriented wordsthat do this, but I cant figure out exactly how i should source for this.
 74.128.56.194 (talk) 23:32, 27 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggested Page Addition.