Origins — Portuguese Egg Tartes: the murky backstory of a national delight
6 min readMay 4, 2020
The Egg Tarte is an icon of the dessert world. These simple, fluffy delights have enchanted people since at least the 12th century and possible before and may even have been served at the table of English King Henry IV in 1399.
Common knowledge holds that they originated in Lisbon, Portugal and this association is so strong that they are often simply called ‘Portuguese Egg Tartes’. In truth though, they may have a far more surprising origin — England.
