Drink for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Legend suggests that during 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his cricket team would triumph over a visiting English squad. For a competitive edge, he threw a lavish party the night before the match, where he offered his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are famously generous four-finger measure whisky pours, customarily measured from pinky to forefinger. Unsurprisingly, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the day after. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.
This inspired kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from that original drink. Here, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've adjusted the recipe to make it more suitable for a household setting.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Produces 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g Scotch whisky blend
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Method
Put everything in a big container. Add 130g water, mix until fully incorporated, then place it in the fridge. It can be stored for about three weeks.
For serving, measure out roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a short glass packed with ice (preferably one big block). Drink immediately. To honour tradition, you could measure it in by hand instead.
