Beef Patties
Updated April 27, 2026
Andrew Bui for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
- Ready In
- 2½ hr
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Ingredients
For the Filling
1 small (5-ounce) russet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 scallions, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 Scotch bonnet chile, seeds in or out
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed and chopped
½ pound ground lamb or beef
Black pepper
1 bay leaf
¼ bunch fresh thyme (8 to 10 sprigs)
Peel of 1 small navel orange (save the flesh for another use)
1 teaspoon roasted ground geera (also known as roasted ground cumin, see Tip)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon curry powder, preferably Caribbean-style (see Tip)
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ cup beef, chicken or vegetable stock
1 lime, zest and juice separated
For the Pastry
All-purpose flour, for work surface
2 (14-ounce) boxes puff pastry sheets, defrosted in the refrigerator
1 egg
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
To Serve
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the filling: Add potato to a small pot and cover with 4 cups water. Season generously with salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until a knife can fully pierce the pieces without resistance, about 25 minutes. Set aside and let potato cool in the cooking liquid.
- Step 2
While the potato cooks, add garlic, scallions, onion, Scotch bonnet and ginger to the bowl of a food processor, and pulse (about 8 times) until the vegetables are evenly chopped and resemble confetti, 1 minute. Set aside.
- Step 3
Set a large (10- to 12-inch) skillet over high heat. Add ground meat and season generously with salt and black pepper. Pat down into a single layer and cook, undisturbed, until the meat is light brown on the underside, about 3 minutes. Add bay leaf, thyme and orange peel. Stir into meat, continuing to cook until no part of the meat is pink, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Step 4
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add the geera, smoked paprika, turmeric, curry, allspice, cinnamon and cloves. Stir to combine and toast until fragrant and slightly deeper in color, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Step 5
Increase heat to medium, add the onion-scallion mix so it coats the meat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the scallion mix softens and begins to brown, 5 to 6 minutes. Add soy sauce and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces and the mixture begins to stick to the pan, 2 minutes. Add stock, and simmer until any liquid reduces and mixture releases along the edges and bottom of the pan, 1 to 2 minutes. The meat should be tender, and if you drag a spatula through the mixture, the path formed by the spatula doesn't “fill in”. Remove the bay leaf, thyme sprigs and orange peel. Taste and add salt if necessary.
- Step 6
Reduce heat to medium-low. Add potatoes to the skillet, along with 1 cup potato cooking liquid. Crush potatoes with a fork while mixing with meat and aromatics. Cook, adding more liquid 1 tablespoon at a time if needed to prevent stuck bits or scorching, until liquid reduces, and the meat is tender and coated with sauce, 10 to 13 minutes. When the filling is done, a spatula dragged through the sauce should keep it in place. Stir in the lime zest and add lime juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, to adjust acidity. The filling can be cooled, transferred to a sealed container and stored refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator if frozen before use.
- Step 7
Prepare the patties: Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly sprinkle a baking sheet with flour and line another baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Step 8
Prepare an egg wash: In a small bowl, whisk the egg with ¼ teaspoon turmeric and 1 tablespoon water.
- Step 9
Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface. Remove a puff pastry sheet from its box and gently unfold on the work surface. Brush lightly with prepared egg wash.
- Step 10
Starting from one long end, roll the dough up into a log and place seam side down. Slice the dough crosswise into 10 to 12 (¾- to 1-inch thick) pieces (the number will depend on how wide your pastry sheets are). Move the slices to the lightly floured baking sheet and refrigerate. Repeat for the remaining pastry and add to the floured baking sheet, then return it to the refrigerator.
- Step 11
Sprinkle some flour on the work surface again. Take 2 pastry slices out of the fridge at a time, lightly flour them and roll each into a 4-inch round. Brush the surface of one round with the egg wash and place ¼ cup (58 to 60 grams) filling in the center. Place the second round over the filling and press along the edge with your thumb. Crimp the edge with a fork to completely seal. Return the unbaked patty to the refrigerator while you work through the remaining dough and filling. You should have 10 or 12 patties. Keep refrigerated or freeze (see Tip), until ready to bake.
- Step 12
Move the patties to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with egg wash and bake until the pastry is puffed and light brown, about 30 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to bake until the pastry is golden brown around the edges and tops are shiny, 5 minutes more.
- Step 13
Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool enough to eat. Serve immediately with pepper sauce, pikliz and cilantro-mint chutney.
Once the patties have been sealed, you can sprinkle them with flour and move without stacking to a sealed, airtight container. Freeze until ready to bake.
To bake from frozen, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Move the patties to a parchment-lined baking sheet and to the oven. Bake patties until the pastry is puffed, pale and light brown, about 30 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees. Rotate the baking sheet and continue to bake until pastry is puffed, golden brown at the edges and tops are shiny, 20 minutes more.
Geera (sometimes spelled “jeera”), also known as cumin, is often sold in its roasted, ground form at Indian, Caribbean and some international grocery stores. To make a similar version, you can toast cumin seeds in a skillet over low heat, stirring frequently, until they pop and turn dark brown. Cool completely, then mill the cumin seeds in a spice grinder until they resemble dust. Transfer to an airtight container and store covered at room temperature.
Caribbean-style curry powder is available under several brand names at Caribbean and some international grocery stores. A blend of many spices (coriander, turmeric, black pepper, fenugreek, chiles, fennel, allspice and black cumin, to name a few), with or without salt, it is often sold as “duck and goat curry powder” or “meat seasoning.”
Private Notes
Comments
Alright, I'll use some paid time off to make these and replenish my kitchen on the fourth day.
"Jeera" is the Hindustani name for cumin. In the 1800s, the British brought Indian and Chinese indentured laborers to the Caribbean; indenture was one level above slavery, which had been abolished in Britain in 1834. Caribbean dishes such as roti or dal puri are of Indian origin; Chinese immigrants contributed soy sauce and stir-frying. For just 1 potato, microwaving the cubes for 6-8 mins is simpler. Zesting the orange rather than adding/removing the peel avoids the bitter pith.
I haven't tried this recipe but it sounds like someone took the filling from Jamaica, the puff pastry crust from Haiti, and added a little Trinidadian/Guyanese heat to a patty. This patty is a food metaphor of Flatbush Avenue!
Grew up on these. Every Caribbean island has a version of this. In Trinidad, they’re called beef pies. This filling sounds wonderful, but for less fuss, no potato (potato is Jamaican beef patty), season with salt, garlic, onion, any hot pepper, parsley, thyme, oregano, or an Italian spice mix. Cilantro, even. That simple. And don’t overstuff the filling. The joy is the buttery flakiness of the pastry against the savory earthiness of spicy beef. You can use any ground meat.
I will def be making this. But I will use a turmeric British hot water pastry crust and turn it into a “pie”. BAM!!!
From the peeling and chopping to the food processing and ultimately, the cooking, this turned out to be a very involved 2-day job for this yardie. They turned out well, but the sweat equity required means that I'd readily seek out store-bought options here in the city before attempting this recipe again.