Cocktail This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Legend claims that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his team would succeed over a touring English side. To gain the upper hand, he threw a grand party on the eve of the match, where he offered his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are incredibly large four-finger measure whisky servings, traditionally poured from little finger to index finger. As expected, the English players overindulged, resulting in them being very the worse for wear and, consequently, vanquished the following day. In this way, the legend of the Patiala peg originated.
This Punjabi kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from Singh's beverage. Here, we offer it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it better suited for a household setting.
Patiala Peg
Yields 1 litre, to serve 10-12 people.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a big container. Include 130g water, mix thoroughly, then put it in the fridge. It will now keep for as long as a few weeks.
To serve, pour roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a short glass packed with ice (preferably one large cube). Serve straight away. For a traditional touch, you could use the four-finger measure instead.
