Cocktail of the Week: The Patiala Peg – Recipe
Folklore has it that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his team would succeed over a visiting English squad. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, where he served his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are incredibly substantial four-finger whisky pours, historically poured from little finger to index finger. As expected, the English players drank too much, resulting in them being very the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the day after. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.
This Punjabi kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from the Maharaja's concoction. Here, we present it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adjusted the formula to make it easier for a home kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 portions.
You Will Need
- 725g Scotch whisky blend
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Instructions
Place everything in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, agitate until fully incorporated, then put it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for up to three weeks.
To serve, dispense roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass packed with ice (traditionally one big block). Drink promptly. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.
