Cocktail This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It
Tale suggests that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. For a competitive edge, he hosted a lavish party on the eve of the match, at which he served his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These were notoriously generous four-finger whisky pours, historically gauged from pinky to forefinger. As expected, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being very hungover and, consequently, vanquished the next day. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg was born.
This Punjabi kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from Singh's concoction. In our establishment, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adapted the instructions to make it more suitable for a domestic setting.
Patiala Peg
Yields 1 litre, enough for 10-12 people.
What's Required
- 725g Scotch whisky blend
- 130g simple syrup
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Instructions
Place everything in a sizeable jug. Pour in 130g water, agitate to combine, then transfer it in the refrigerator. You can store it for about a few weeks.
For serving, measure out roughly 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a rocks glass filled with ice (preferably one large cube). Enjoy straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could pour it using your fingers for authenticity.