Drink This Week: The Patiala Peg – How to Make It
Legend suggests that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his team would succeed over a touring English side. For a competitive edge, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, where he presented his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are famously generous four-finger measure whisky servings, traditionally poured from pinky to forefinger. Predictably, the English players overindulged, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the day after. And so, the myth of the Patiala peg was born.
This Punjabi spin on the Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from that original drink. In our establishment, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adjusted the formula to make it more suitable for a domestic setting.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Produces 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g Scotch whisky blend
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A small pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Preparation
Put everything in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, stir to combine, then transfer it in the fridge. You can store it for about a few weeks.
For serving, dispense roughly 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a old fashioned glass filled with ice (preferably one big block). Enjoy straight away. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers instead.
