Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – How to Make It
Folklore has it that in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was set that his team would triumph over a touring English team. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a lavish party the night before the match, at which he served his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were notoriously large four-finger measure whisky pours, historically measured from pinky to index finger. As expected, the English players overindulged, leaving them terribly the worse for wear and, inevitably, beaten the following day. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg was born.
This Punjabi variation of old fashioned is inspired by that original drink. Here, we offer it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adjusted the instructions to make it better suited for a domestic kitchen.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Makes 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g simple syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Method
Place all the ingredients in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, mix to combine, then place it in the refrigerator. You can store it for up to 21 days.
When ready to drink, measure out about 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a old fashioned glass filled with ice (traditionally one large cube). Drink straight away. To honour tradition, you could measure it in by hand instead.
