Cocktail for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It
Legend claims that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his cricket team would succeed over a visiting English squad. For a competitive edge, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, where he served his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are notoriously substantial four-finger whisky pours, customarily measured from pinky to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players partook excessively, leaving them very the worse for wear and, inevitably, vanquished the following day. Thus, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.
This Punjabi kind-of old fashioned takes its cue from that original drink. Here, we offer it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we've modified the formula to make it better suited for a domestic kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Produces 1 litre, to serve 10-12 people.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A small pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Method
Combine all the ingredients in a sizeable jug. Include 130g water, mix until fully incorporated, then put it in the fridge. You can store it for up to a few weeks.
When ready to drink, pour about 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass filled with ice (ideally one large cube). Drink immediately. If you're feeling traditional, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.
