Drink for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It
Legend claims that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was determined that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. To secure an advantage, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, where he served his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are notoriously generous four-finger whisky servings, customarily measured from little finger to index finger. As expected, the English players drank too much, resulting in them being very the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the following day. Thus, the story of the Patiala peg was born.
This take on a kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from the Maharaja's concoction. In our establishment, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've adjusted the formula to make it better suited for a domestic setting.
Patiala Peg
Makes 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Preparation
Place everything in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, agitate to combine, then transfer it in the refrigerator. It will now keep for about three weeks.
When ready to drink, measure out roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass filled with ice (traditionally one big block). Drink immediately. If you're feeling traditional, you could measure it in by hand instead.
