Cocktail This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Folklore has it that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was determined that his team would triumph over a touring English team. For a competitive edge, he threw a grand party on the eve of the match, at which he offered his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were notoriously generous four-finger whisky servings, traditionally measured from little finger to index finger. As expected, the English players drank too much, leaving them very the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the following day. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg came to be.
This Punjabi spin on the Old Fashioned cocktail takes its cue from that original drink. Here, we offer it from a custom-made large-format bottle, but we've adapted the instructions to make it more suitable for a domestic kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Yields 1 litre, enough for 10-12 portions.
What's Required
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A small pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Preparation
Combine all the ingredients in a big container. Add 130g water, mix to combine, then put it in the refrigerator. It will now keep for as long as three weeks.
For serving, dispense roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass filled with ice (traditionally one big block). Drink straight away. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.
