We’re taking a brief timeout from our barrage of fall food reviews to check out something we’d been meaning to try for a while now, the Trader Joe’s Jamaican Style Beef Patties. Though these are inspired by Jamaican cuisine, these heat-‘n-serve pastries seem like the perfect thing to satiate our hunger on a cool autumn evening. So let’s dig in to see how these taste! (Also, we’ll be heading back to pumpkin-town tomorrow, so don’t you worry, fall enthusiasts. We haven’t forsaken you!)
Now, we should point out that unlike many of the locales we try food from — such as Thailand and South Korea — we do have staffers who have been to Jamaica. Of course, that was a long time ago, which makes it hard to compare frozen Jamaican food with the real deal. We also didn’t have any beef patties while we were there. We do visit an authentic Jamaican restaurant from time to time, but we generally get a chicken and rice dish or just a heaping helping of plantains. So again, we’re not experts on Jamaican cuisine.
We’re going to go out on a limb and say that these probably aren’t super authentic, but who knows? Maybe they actually are!
You can cook these in a conventional oven, an air fryer, or a microwave, but we think the oven is probably the best method here. That’s what we went with for the review, even though it does take a bit of time (about 35 minutes, plus however long it takes your oven to preheat). Even so, we worry that these might turn out a little soggy in the microwave, and they definitely seem like they’d be better without a high sog factor. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out our package scan at the bottom of this review).
We’re really glad we ended up going with the oven on these, because the crust comes out absolutely perfect. It’s slightly crunchy, super flakey, and deliciously buttery tasting. We couldn’t have asked for a better crust; Trader Joe’s really knocked this out of the park.
Of course, we’re not quite as sold on the beef portion. Yes, it tastes great, and it has a lovely texture. However, there’s just not that much of it. We’ve had a lot of commenters complain about the amount of beef in the Steak & Stout Pies, and we have a feeling those same folks aren’t going to be happy with the amount of beef here either. Personally, we found the amount to be acceptable because the shell tastes so good, but there are definitely people who are going to disagree with us — and probably vehemently and with a lot of curse words.
You’re more than welcome to disagree with us in the comments section; that’s what it’s there for. We don’t expect all of our readers to share our exact opinions on everything we review. Just note that if you get too nasty, we will delete your comment. So be warned.
Anyway, these do have a decent spice level. No, it’s not going to impress the spice-obsessed, but we did find or sinuses started clearing out as we were eating these.
One of these beef patties contains 440 calories and 590 mg of sodium, and there are two per box. If you scarf down both in a sitting, that puts you up to 880 calories and 1,180 mg of sodium, which is a bit high, so be careful.
The Trader Joe’s Jamaican Style Beef Patties are super tasty, but a little light on the beef portion. Some people are going to take issue with that, but we found these to be really good despite the amount of beef. Beef fanatics are going to disagree with us, of course, but we’re perfectly happy with these beef patties.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s frozen food, check out our package scan below.
