What Jamaican pastry is a golden, folded turnover filled most famously with seasoned ground beef?

A Jamaican beef patty is a golden, folded pastry filled with seasoned ground beef.

The pastry is typically colored yellow with turmeric or another spice, and the filling is cooked with aromatics and Jamaican seasonings. Patties are baked rather than deep-fried, giving the crust its characteristic flaky texture. Cheese, chicken, vegetables, and other fillings are also sold, but the beef version is the best-known classic.

Jamaican patties developed within Jamaica’s multicultural food history, drawing on pastry traditions associated with British baking and fillings influenced by African, Indian, and local Caribbean cooking. They became an especially familiar takeaway food and are widely sold in bakeries and patty shops. A patty is not the same as a Jamaican coco bread sandwich, although the two are often eaten together.