Cocktail for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It
Legend suggests that during 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was set that his team would win over a visiting English squad. To secure an advantage, he hosted a lavish party on the eve of the match, where he offered his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were famously substantial four-finger whisky pours, customarily poured from pinky to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players drank too much, leaving them extremely hungover and, inevitably, vanquished the next day. And so, the legend of the Patiala peg came to be.
This Punjabi variation of old fashioned is inspired by the Maharaja's drink. In our establishment, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've adapted the formula to make it more suitable for a domestic kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Makes 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Method
Place all the ingredients in a big container. Include 130g water, mix until fully incorporated, then transfer it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for about 21 days.
To serve, measure out roughly 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a short glass containing ice (traditionally one large cube). Serve immediately. To honour tradition, you could measure it in by hand instead.
