The cowboy delicacy is still on these Fort Worth menus

Rocky Mountain oysters, swinging beef, powdered nuts: fried bull testicles apparently have as many euphemistic nicknames as the number of beef-centered communities they are eaten in.

Often viewed as a delicacy, if not a weird appetizer, testicle food in North America started out as a waste, not a lustful cowboy food, especially during the spring recap, calves dehorned, branded, and neutered for ranchers in the Rockies became. In Texas, we call this more delicate, flavourful variety of chicken nuggets “veal fries,” and Fort Worth, also known as Cowtown, is the Texas capital for these meatballs.

In a former saloon in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, Riscky’s Steakhouse is the oldest restaurant in the United States, and according to Eddie Sullivan, co-owner and operator, veal fries are on the menu. The restaurant, originally called Theo’s Saddle & Sirloin Inn, was founded in the 1920s by Yugoslav immigrant Theo Yordanoff, who sourced the organs for “almost nothing” from nearby packing houses, Sullivan says.

Ranchers doing business in the Exchange building – later called “Wall Street of the West” – likely had steaks for lunch, while meat packers shuffled down red brick street to Theo’s to buy 15-cent roast veal sandwiches. In the book Legendary Locals of Fort Worth, Yordanoff is featured in a chapter on innovators, and it is said that his roast veal sandwiches were considered “a cheap and nutritious meal for the men who worked in the nearby meat factories.”

Theo’s was sold in 1993 to Jim Riscky, the grandson of Joe and Mary Riscky. After moving from Poland, the Risckys opened Riscky’s Grocery & Market near the stockyards in 1927, selling barbecue lunches with their tomato barbecue sauce. Jim Riscky changed the name from Theo’s to Riscky’s Steakhouse, but many of the original recipes have been retained, including Yordanoff’s kapusta (cabbage) soup and famous veal fries.

Today, Sullivan estimates the family-friendly steakhouse sells between 120 and 150 pounds of veal fries each week. There was a sharp surge in demand in 2010, when Riscky’s Steakhouse added “Proof You Have the Courage to Eat Nuts” on a Texas Monthly Bucket List of 63 Things All Texans Should Do Before They Get There die.

When asked if they’ll ever go out of style, Sullivan says, “Maybe in other places, but not in the Fort Worth Stockyards – they’ve been there for 97 years and growing. You’re not going anywhere. “

Veal fries are served at Riscky’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth.(Hannah Lacamp)Veal fries are served at Riscky’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth.(Hannah Lacamp)Riscky’s began as Theo’s Saddle and Sirloin Inn in the Stockyards in the 1920s.(Courtesy Riscky)

In a slightly more upscale setting – with tablecloths, a rooftop terrace, and large artwork depicting rodeo life – Reata Restaurant in Sundance Square serves veal fries layered over two thick onion rings with a cracked creamy pepper sauce and a hint of lettuce. According to the restaurant’s cookbook, Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine, Reata’s two restaurants were once the largest buyers of testicles in the United States.

Serial entrepreneur Al Micallef opened the first Reata restaurant in Alpine in 1995 because, after moving to Texas and buying a ranch, he wanted “a damn good place to eat,” the cookbook says. The second location opened the next year in Fort Worth on the 35th floor of the former Bank One Tower, but was destroyed in the F2 tornado in March 2000. The current two-story restaurant, complete with a gift shop and a geodesic dome on the roof, reopened in 2002, and before the pandemic, the location had annual sales of $ 12 million.

As the son and current president of Reata Restaurants, Mike Micallef, tells the Dallas Morning News that “a lot of veal fries” are sold in the regular $ 39 starter sampler that features calamari and bacon-wrapped crab-filled jalapeños. However, the greatest demand for veal fries is during the annual Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, held for 23 days each January.

Micallef says he doesn’t necessarily consider veal fries a delicacy, but they are part of the cooking approach that is gaining popularity again recently. For example, he says, “Now we see things like ‘cheeks’ on menus.”

In addition to Riscky’s Steakhouse and Reata Restaurant, veal fries are also on the menu at Grady Spears’ Horseshoe Hill Cafe, which is listed as a Texas Sack Lunch, and they are also served at Cattlemen’s Steak House, both near the stockyards. The Cattlemens property didn’t want it publicized, but a staff member over the phone confirmed the existence of a roast veal pizza sold off the Balls to the Wall menu.

It seems like every place in Texas that once had an exchange has a steakhouse nearby that still sells veal fries. In Amarillo, the Big Texan Steak Ranch, home of the 72-ounce Steak Eating Challenge, has served Rocky Mountain oysters with cocktail sauce since 1960. Co-owner Bobby Lee, son of founder Robert James “RJ” Lee, says when people drive through the Texas pan they want to see cowboys. He describes the cowboy personality as “cowballs” and eating steaks, drinking tequila and dancing on tables. With the Big Texan, “we didn’t stray from the mother ship,” he says.

When consuming veal fries with a taste that is compared to veal or oysters with a “melt-in-the-mouth texture”, however, it is not just about the taste. It’s about tradition, and Texans are a group of people who keep them alive.

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