The golden colour of the crust comes from turmeric, a yellow spice, mixed into the pastry dough. The filling is most often seasoned ground beef, but you can also find patties filled with chicken, fish, vegetables, or even cheese and peppers.
The flavouring in the filling uses many of the same spices as jerk seasoning — scotch bonnet, allspice, thyme — giving each bite a warmly spiced, deeply satisfying flavour. The pastry is light and flaky, a little like a pie crust but more crumbly.
A popular combination loved by Jamaican school children is a patty slipped inside a soft coco bread roll — a bread roll lightly sweetened with coconut. It is like a sandwich where the filling is already inside its own pastry. Jamaicans call this 'patty in a coco bread' and it is a lunchtime favourite.
Patties are sold in dedicated patty shops, bakeries, supermarkets, and school canteens across Jamaica. The most famous patty chain in Jamaica is Tastee, which has been making patties since 1966. Jamaican migrants have also taken the patty to New York, Toronto, London, and beyond.