The dish was invented by one Mustafa Efendi, who was born in 1842 in Pazarcık, Ottoman Bulgaria, and emigrated to İnegöl in 1892.

In 1893, he began selling meatballs in his shop at the bazaar on the Ankara-Bursa road.

These proved popular and the family-run shop is still in business till the present day.

Production of İnegöl meatballs started in the 1930s and quickly spread all over the country.

İnegöl meatballs can consist of veal, lamb, salt, sodium-bicarbonate and onion mixture in specific proportions.