📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Couilles de Taureau (Huevo de Toro)
- 🌍 Origin: A very old European heirloom. Originally from Spain under the name “Huevo de Toro”, it was later popularized in France under the literal translation “Couilles de Taureau” (which translates to “Bull’s Testicles”).
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall), standard regular leaf.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Large, meaty red fruits. Note on shape: There is historically a lot of confusion regarding the true shape of this variety. Some seed strains produce ribbed, oblate beefsteaks, while others produce blunt oxhearts. Both shapes are widely circulated under this name. Average weights range from 200g to over 300g (7–11 oz).
- 👅 Flavor: Classic, rich, old-fashioned red tomato flavor.
- ⏳ Maturity: Varies by climate. Generally mid-season to late-season.
A tall plant. The fruits are red, smooth, oblate (flat-round), weighing 300g (10.5 oz) and more. Productive. Tasty.
Edited November 26, 2015 by Drosera
Indeterminate, with good yield. The tomatoes are dense, store well, up to 200g (7 oz). Regular tomato flavor, not acidic.
It was strange though—cutting two different tomatoes from the same plant gave me completely different interior flesh structures! 🤷♀️
I couldn’t just walk past this thread. It is pronounced “Cooy de Toro”, which literally translates to “Bull’s Balls”. 😂 300 grams… they are definitely not small! 🤣
I received a New Year’s gift—seeds directly from Spain for the oldest local variety there, Huevo de Toro, with a note saying they are “heart-shaped”. The internet says it is the exact same variety as this one, just before the name was translated into French.
The fruits can be oblate or heart-shaped. Spanish websites write that it has a true, old-fashioned tomato flavor, is late-maturing (though Tatiana lists it as mid-season), doesn’t transport well, and is not very productive (though those are restaurant websites, maybe they are just trying to drive up the price).
We shall try growing it and see.
Mine were early and produced very beautiful, somewhat flattened oxhearts. I’d rate the flavor a 4 out of 5.
I’m looking at everyone’s photos and for some reason, everyone’s fruits look different. Here are what my “bull’s balls” looked like.
Germination rate was 100%.
Quote from Aleksander (Dec 22, 2017):
We shall try growing it and see.
I tried it. It turned out to be completely unproductive for me.
