The oldest Arab cookbooks are where kofta recipes first appear. The earliest recipes call for sizable ground lamb meatballs that have been triple-glazed in a saffron-egg yolk combination. The term “gilding” or “endoring” is used in the West to describe this glazing technique. The Kofta family relocated to India, and Alan Davidson claims that Nargisi Kofta was served in the Mughal court..
From the Indian subcontinent through Central Asia, the Middle East, the Balkans, and northern Africa, koftas may be found. The national dishes of Afghanistan, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina all contain koftas., Turkey, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Greece, India, Iran, Morocco, and Pakistan. According to Engin Akin, it is “a preferred offering at communal gatherings of all kinds” in Turkey. Along with dolma, lavash, harissa, kebabs, and pahlava, it is a meal with “clearly symbolic ethnic significance” in Armenia and Azerbaijan that is frequently debated by gastro nationalists who want to claim it as one of their own country’s historic foods that has been appropriated by the other country. The Assyrian population enjoys kofta.
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