Drink of the Week: The Patiala Peg – How to Make It
Legend has it that during 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was set that his cricket team would triumph over a visiting English team. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a grand party the night before the match, at which he presented his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are incredibly large four-finger whisky pours, customarily measured from little finger to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players drank too much, leaving them terribly the worse for wear and, inevitably, beaten the following day. In this way, the legend of the Patiala peg came to be.
This Punjabi kind-of old fashioned draws inspiration from Singh's beverage. Here, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've modified the formula to make it better suited for a domestic setting.
Patiala Peg
Makes 1 litre, serving 10-12 people.
What's Required
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g simple syrup
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Instructions
Put all the ingredients in a sizeable jug. Add 130g water, stir to combine, then transfer it in the refrigerator. It will now keep for about a few weeks.
To serve, pour approximately 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass containing ice (preferably one large cube). Serve immediately. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.
