Various origin stories exist. The
Oxford Companion to Food gives the first instance of the name as of 1809, in an edition of
Maria Rundell's
A New System of Domestic Cookery. such as the
Mughlai dish called
nargisi kofta ("
Narcissus meatballs"), in which a boiled egg is encased in a seasoned ground-meat mixture and then fried. Other claims include the item having been invented at
Fortnum & Mason at Piccadilly in 1738. According to
Culinary Delights of Yorkshire, they originated in
Whitby,
Yorkshire, England, in the 19th century, and were originally covered in
fish paste rather than
sausage meat. They were supposedly named after William J. Scott & Sons, a well-known eatery which sold them. It has also been suggested that they were originally called "scorch" eggs, as they were cooked over an open flame, though according to surviving recipes they were deep-fried in
lard. 'Scotching' as a culinary process is also sometimes cited as the origin, though what "scotching" was is open to interpretation, from the inclusion of
anchovies to simply mincing meat. Further confusion is added by the large trade in eggs from Scotland in the 19th century, which sometimes involved dipping eggs in a
lime powder to preserve them, a process possibly also known as "scotching". ==Preparation and serving==