Cocktail for This Week: The Patiala Peg – Recipe
Legend suggests that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would succeed over a touring English side. To secure an advantage, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, where he presented his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were famously generous four-finger whisky pours, customarily gauged from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players overindulged, leaving them extremely the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the following day. Thus, the legend of the Patiala peg was born.
This take on a variation of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from Singh's beverage. Here, we present it from a bespoke large-format bottle, but we've adapted the recipe to make it more suitable for a home kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Produces 1 litre, to serve 10-12 portions.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A small pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Method
Combine everything in a large bottle. Add 130g water, stir thoroughly, then put it in the fridge. It will now keep for as long as a few weeks.
When ready to drink, dispense roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass packed with ice (ideally one large cube). Drink straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.
