Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – How to Make It
Legend suggests that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was determined that his cricket team would triumph over a visiting English side. To secure an advantage, he threw a splendid party on the eve of the match, where he served his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are incredibly substantial four-finger whisky servings, traditionally poured from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players overindulged, resulting in them being very hungover and, inevitably, vanquished the following day. And so, the myth of the Patiala peg came to be.
This take on a kind-of old fashioned takes its cue from Singh's beverage. Here, we serve it from a specially crafted five-litre bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it more suitable for a household environment.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Produces 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Preparation
Put all the ingredients in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, mix until fully incorporated, then transfer it in the fridge. It can be stored for up to a few weeks.
For serving, pour approximately 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a rocks glass containing ice (ideally one big block). Drink promptly. For a traditional touch, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.
