A patty is a flattened, usually round, serving of

ground meat Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, incl ...

legumes Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consu ...

grains A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit ( caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and le ...

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

, or

meat alternative A meat alternative or meat substitute (also called plant-based meat, mock meat, or alternative protein), is a food product made from Vegetarianism, vegetarian or Veganism, vegan ingredients, eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives t ...

s. Common ground meat used include

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

, elk,

turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

, and

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

. Patties are found in multiple cuisines throughout the world. The ingredients are compacted and shaped, usually cooked, and served in various ways.

Etymology

The term originated in the 17th century as an English alteration of the French word

pâté Pâté ( , , ) is a forcemeat. Originally, the dish was cooked in a pastry case; in more recent times it is more usually cooked without pastry in a terrine. Various ingredients are used, which may include meat from pork, poultry, fish or bee ...

, originally meaning a pastry with a meat filling, and later the filling itself.

Terminology

The term "patty" is used in many varieties of English, but less frequently in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

than in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a small flat cake of chopped food",

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

as "pieces of food, especially meat, formed into a thin, circular shape and then usually cooked". In some countries, patties may be called "discs." Similar-shaped cakes not made from ground beef may also be called "burgers": "fish burgers" may be made from reshaped mechanically separated meat. Patties made from chicken meat may be called chicken patties.

Veggie burger A veggie burger or meatless burger is a hamburger made with a patty that does not contain meat, or the patty of such a hamburger. The patty may be made from ingredients like beans (especially soybeans and tofu), nut (fruit), nuts, grains, seeds ...

patties are made without meat and instead use legumes, grains, other mixed vegetables, and/or soy products such as

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

tempeh Tempe or tempeh (; , ) is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, '' Rhizopus oligosporus'' or '' Rhizopu ...

seitan Seitan (, ; ) is a food made from gluten, the main protein of wheat. It is also known as miànjīn ( zh, links=no, t=麵筋), fu (), milgogi (), wheat meat, gluten meat, or simply gluten. Wheat gluten is an alternative to soybean-based foods, ...

, a product made of wheat gluten, often mixed with a binding agent.

Variations and serving styles

Croquettes

Patties can be breaded and deep-fried, producing croquettes such as crab cakes. In

, traditional chippers often serve batter burgers (a beef-based patty dipped in batter and deep fried). A batter burger served as a sandwich is called a wurly burger, and is believed to have been invented by the Mona Lisa chipper in

Crumlin, Dublin Crumlin () is a Southside (Dublin), Southside suburb of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Formerly a rural area, it became heavily built up from the early 20th century onwards. Crumlin is the site of Ireland's largest children's hospital, Ou ...

. In Japan the Korokke is an example. Rissoles are meat (typically beef), or fish and other ingredients, coated in breadcrumbs or less frequently battered, and deep-fried; they are found in various European cuisines.RissolesFoodsOfEngland.info
Accessed April 2025.

Cutlets

Patties can be treated as a cutlet and eaten with a knife and fork in dishes like Salisbury steak, the German

Hamburg steak Hamburg steak is a patty of ground beef. Made popular worldwide by migrating Germans, it became a mainstream dish around the start of the 19th century. It is related to Salisbury steaks, which also use ground beef. It is considered the origin of ...

, or the Serbo-Croatian pljeskavica, or with chopsticks in dishes such as Songjeong ''tteok-galbi''. Other examples include the Russian Pozharsky cutlet.Павел Сюткин, Ольга Сюткина. ''Непридуманная история русской кухни''
Котлетная история
Moscow: Астрель, 2015 (in Russian). .Н. А. Лопатина. История пожарских котлет. Тверь: ТО "Книжный клуб", 2014 (in Russian).

Fritters

Aloo tikki is a potato patty that originated in the Indian subcontinent. A related dish is ragda pattice, which covers the potato patty in a gravy. An arepa is a dish of

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and other ingredients shaped into a patty and griddled; it has been eaten in parts of Central and South American since

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

times.

Quenelles

Gefilte fish is often served as a

quenelle __NOTOC__ A quenelle () is a mixture of creamed fish or meat, sometimes combined with breadcrumbs, with a light egg binding, formed into an egg-like shape, and then cooked. The usual preparation is by poaching. Formerly, quenelles were often us ...

, a patty shaped into a flattened egg.

Sandwich fillings

Patties are often served as

sandwich A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...

es, typically in buns, making a type of sandwich called a "burger", or a

hamburger A hamburger (or simply a burger) consists of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. The patties are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or chilis ...

if the patty is made from

ground beef Ground beef, hamburger, hamburger meat (North American English), minced beef or beef mince (Commonwealth English; often just generically referred to as ground meat, ''mince'' or ''mincemeat'') is beef that has been finely chopped with a knife or ...

, or sometimes between slices of bread. An American patty melt is a ground beef patty topped with melted cheese (typically

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

) served on toasted bread, typically

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

. In

, traditional chippers often serve sandwiches called spice burgers. In Japan and Korea, a ground beef patty is sometimes served as a sandwich on a "bun" made of compressed rice; the sandwich is called a rice burger.

Tartares

Some patties, like

steak tartare Steak tartare or tartar steak is a French cuisine, French dish of Raw meat, raw ground meat, ground (minced) beef. It is usually served with onions, capers, parsley or Chives, chive, salt, black pepper, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and other ...

and Middle Eastern kibbeh nayeh, are served raw.

Commercial production

Commercially produced patties are machine-formed. With

mass-produced Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. ...

patties, it is not uncommon to find them with seemingly abnormal shapes or a bumpy perimeter. These groove-like bumps are caused by the machine that forms the patties. They are used in production to keep the patties in line, so they will not fall off the assembly line, and can be manipulated by the various machines. In other boxed patties, small punctures can be seen in the top and bottom sides of the patty. These punctures are there for similar reasons.

References

{{meat World cuisine Ground meat