Cocktail for This Week: The Patiala Peg – Recipe
Folklore suggests that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his cricket team would win over a touring English side. For a competitive edge, he organized a lavish party the night before the match, at which he served his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These are incredibly substantial four-finger whisky servings, customarily gauged from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players overindulged, leaving them very hungover and, consequently, vanquished the day after. And so, the story of the Patiala peg originated.
This take on a kind-of old fashioned takes its cue from that original beverage. In our establishment, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it better suited for a household environment.
Patiala Peg
Produces 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Instructions
Combine everything in a big container. Include 130g water, stir until fully incorporated, then place it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for about 21 days.
To serve, dispense about 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a old fashioned glass containing ice (preferably one large cube). Drink promptly. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure instead.
