Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It
Tale claims that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would win over a visiting English squad. For a competitive edge, he threw a grand party on the eve of the match, where he served his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were famously generous four-finger measure whisky servings, traditionally gauged from little finger to forefinger. Unsurprisingly, the English players overindulged, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the next day. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg was born.
This Punjabi kind-of old fashioned is inspired by Singh's concoction. Here, we offer it from a bespoke large-format bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it better suited for a domestic kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Yields 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g simple syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Method
Put all the ingredients in a sizeable jug. Add 130g water, agitate until fully incorporated, then transfer it in the fridge. It will now keep for up to three weeks.
To serve, measure out about 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a rocks glass containing ice (preferably one large cube). Drink straight away. For a traditional touch, you could measure it in by hand as they did.
