Cocktail for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Tale suggests that in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was adamant that his team would succeed over a visiting English team. To gain the upper hand, he threw a lavish party on the eve of the match, at which he served his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were incredibly generous four-finger measure whisky pours, historically gauged from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the next day. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg originated.
This take on a variation of old fashioned draws inspiration from that original drink. At the restaurant, we present it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've adapted the recipe to make it more suitable for a domestic setting.
Patiala Peg
Makes 1 litre, to serve 10-12 people.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a large bottle. Include 130g water, agitate thoroughly, then put it in the fridge. You can store it for about a few weeks.
When ready to drink, measure out roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a old fashioned glass containing ice (traditionally one big block). Serve straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.