Last weekend I had a taste for Jamaican beef patties. So I challenged myself to see if I could actually make them homemade. Being that I have little to no experience in Caribbean cooking I had to go out there and study some recipes. I raked through all sorts of articles and blogs only to find Keith Lorren’s Jamaican Beef  Pattie Recipe. 

I watched his video on YouTube and decided to move forward. The video seemed easy to follow so I thought the recipe would be too. Boy was I wrong. After reading over the recipe, I found that there were ingredients and steps that were missing from it. At this point I was losing my shit a little. Ok let’s be honest, I was losing it a lot. I had invested in making these Jamaican beef patties but it seemed like it was slowly slipping away. Thankfully, I was able to think fast to interchange some of the components to make it right.

As I made the pastry, I realized the recipe asked for Beef Suet. I thought to myself where in the hell am I going to get this from? The recipe and video said that the Suet is what gives the beef patties its unique flavor and flaky texture. So I thought flaky texture, hmm? Butter! I will replace that ingredient with butter and proceed. I froze two sticks of butter as I know adding cold butter to pastry gives it flaky consistency. After the pastry came together I wrapped in plastic wrap and sat in the fridge.

The meat filling was pretty simple. I had to make a seasoning paste that included scotch bonnet, onions, thyme, garlic, scallions, water, etc. This is then blended up and added to the cooking ground beef. His recipe implied that you could stretch the meat by adding french bread to the filling. I however skipped this step. I just wanted the meat flavor. The meat filling took no longer than 20 minutes to complete.. It was then chilled in the fridge with the pastry. The whole process took about 24 hours. As the dough had to rest for a full day. 

After the pastry rested, I rolled it into rectangular shapes to add the meat filling inside. I folded and crimped the pastry to close with a fork. The recipe made me about 10 patties. I made 8 and then put the last two in the freezer. I placed the other 8 on a baking sheet coated lightly with flour and in a 360F oven for 45 minutes.

I took the patties straight from the oven and tasted it. I wouldn’t advise that as they are super hot inside. However, the taste and overall look were damn near authentic.

My only criticism of my preparation is I think my pastry could have been thicker when I rolled it out. I think I rolled it out too thin. Outside of that I think I did a pretty good job. Would I do this again? Sure, but only for special occasions. Will you try this recipe? Comment below ♥

Happy Cooking

Chef J. Delawcious .