My last three weeks have been spent in Jamaica feasting on jerk pork and chicken, spicy patties, goat curry, callaloo and salt fish with ackee. 

Whereever you eat, the swankiest or simplest restaurant, there’s always hot-pepper sauce on the table, often made with Scotch bonnet peppers.

After a week at home, my taste buds needed enlivening, so it was time to use stocking filler Christmas present: a Jamaican Patties spice kit from www.thespicery.com containing three spice sachets and instructions.

Making the pastry involved rubbing together 500g plain flour and ½ teaspoon salt with 250g cubed butter, before adding 130ml water and mixing into dough. 

I made the filling by chopping and frying together one large onion, two large carrots, three sticks of celery, three garlic cloves and 450g minced beef in oil with the first spice sachet (a mix of 14 spices). Four chopped tomatoes were added with 100ml of water and the mix was simmered until the liquid was absorbed.

I rolled out the huge volume of pastry, cut into 12 circles using a small bowl and filled them with the mince mixture before folding over Cornish pasty style.

Tidying up, I found a sachet which should have been added to the flour before making the pastry. Whoops!  This one, containing 10 spices including turmeric, would have given the pastry a lovely golden colour. To save the day, I added the spices to a beaten egg which was brushed over the top before cooking for 30 minutes at 190 degrees.

Despite my blunder, the patties turned out pretty well. However, I decided to compare them with something more authentic: a chicken patty from Mel’s Caribbean van in Walthamstow market.

Judging by the bright orange colour, Mel certainly hadn’t forgotten her pastry spices. Although the pastry was flakier, spice wise, mine put up a very good fight.

Both were eaten with a hot pepper sauce, made by blitzing a third spice sachet with mango, sugar, water, salt and lime juice. In fact it was so spicy, I made a yogurt-style raita to cool things down.

But how did both patties compare with those eaten in Jamaica? Whilst the spices were just as hot, the weather wasn’t: sometimes it’s not what you eat, but where you eat it.