VIRGINIA CITY, Nev.  The judges gathered around the pool table at the Union Brewery Saloon, their palates attuned despite thick nicotine haze. They were here to assess the taste, texture, appearance and creative flair of a not-for-the-faint-of-heart culinary tradition known as the mountain oyster  the Wild West on a plate.

Of all the country’s gastronomic competitions, from “Top Chef” to pies at the county fair, perhaps none compare to the challenge facing the harried chefs assembled here in a parking lot for the 18th annual International Comstock Mountain Oyster Fry. Classically dipped in cornmeal and then fried, or artfully concealed in scrambled eggs, bordelaise sauce or sushi, these oysters were not of the Chesapeake or bluepoint variety but, rather, a cornerstone of Western ranching culture involving testicles from gelded lambs and calves.

“It takes a strong stomach,” said Nicki Wilson, 33, an office manager for a towing company who was bent on becoming the Tom Colicchio of mountain oysters with a taco recipe laced with tequila, cumin and cayenne.

The cooking of testicles  also known as calf fries or lamb fries  is a living tradition on ranches throughout rural Nevada and the Intermountain West down through Central Texas (the annual fry here is nicknamed the “testicle festival”). This feat of derring-do harks back to the days when every part of an animal was used, and settlers by necessity “had a rather investigative spirit when it came to food,” said Cathy Luchetti, the author of “Home on the Range: A Culinary History of the American West” (Villard, 1993).