Skinned, squishy, and raw, sloshing around in a metal pan. Bull testicles are ugly. Buttery, brain-looking slime balls the size of papayas.

I find myself questioning my resolve, but they’re the reason I’m here in Lipovica, a farming village in eastern Serbia — I’m at the 13th Annual World Testicle Cooking Championship, commonly known as the Mudijada. Serbs have many options from which they could construct their national myth and global brand identity: international sporting success; rich and spicy home-distilled brandy usually made from plums, called rakija; tall, high-cheekboned women with severe and husky voices. So why testicles?

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