Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Tale has it that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would succeed over a touring English side. To gain the upper hand, he organized a splendid party on the eve of the match, where he served his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were notoriously large four-finger measure whisky servings, customarily poured from pinky to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players drank too much, leaving them terribly the worse for wear and, inevitably, vanquished the day after. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg came to be.
This take on a kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail is inspired by that original beverage. Here, we present it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we've adapted the recipe to make it better suited for a home kitchen.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 people.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Instructions
Put everything in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, agitate until fully incorporated, then put it in the refrigerator. You can store it for as long as a few weeks.
To serve, dispense approximately 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass packed with ice (traditionally one large cube). Serve immediately. For a traditional touch, you could use the four-finger measure for authenticity.
