Drink for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Legend has it that during 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was determined that his team would succeed over a touring English squad. To gain the upper hand, he threw a lavish party the night before the match, at which he offered his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were incredibly large four-finger measure whisky servings, customarily poured from pinky to index finger. As expected, the English players drank too much, leaving them very hungover and, consequently, vanquished the next day. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg originated.

This Punjabi spin on the Old Fashioned cocktail is inspired by that original drink. In our establishment, we offer it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adapted the recipe to make it more suitable for a household kitchen.

Patiala Peg

Produces 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

• 725g blended Scotch
• 130g sugar syrup
• 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
• A pinch of salt
• 2g xanthan gum powder

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in a sizeable jug. Pour in 130g water, stir to combine, then place it in the refrigerator. You can store it for about 21 days.

To serve, measure out approximately 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass filled with ice (traditionally one big block). Drink immediately. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure for authenticity.