Runner-up in the Society of Authors’ Scott-Moncrieff Prize for Giles MacDonogh’s translation from the French

Winner of the Prix Litteraire de la Commanderie des Gastronomes Ambassadeurs de Rungis

Shortlisted for Gourmand Magazine’s award for best translation



This is a translation of a book first published in France in 2005 with the addition of some material concerning how/where to buy the product in Britain.



It is part cookery book, part dictionary and part cultural study of testicles: human and animal. Their culinary use is the bedrock, although it would be impossible to ignore the wider implications of these anatomical jewels.



The book opens with a discussion of balls, of pairs, of virility and the general significance thereof; it then gives an account of culinary use of testicles, in history and across cultures. There follows a recipe section that ranges the continents in search of good dishes, from lamb’s fry with mushrooms, to balls with citrus fruit, to the criadillas beloved of bullfighters, and Potatoes Léontine, stuffed with cocks’ stones. To close, there is an extensive dictionary or glossary, drawing on many languages, which illustrates the linguistic richness that attaches to this anatomical part.

Blandine Vie

Giles MacDonogh