Cocktail for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – Recipe
Folklore suggests that in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was determined that his cricket team would succeed over a touring English squad. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a grand party on the eve of the match, where he offered his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are famously substantial four-finger measure whisky servings, customarily poured from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players drank too much, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the following day. And so, the myth of the Patiala peg was born.
This take on a spin on the old fashioned draws inspiration from the Maharaja's drink. At the restaurant, we serve it from a custom-made large-format bottle, but we've adjusted the instructions to make it easier for a household setting.
The Patiala Peg Recipe
Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.
Ingredients
- 725g blended Scotch
- 130g simple syrup
- 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
- A pinch of salt
- 2g xanthan gum
Method
Combine everything in a big container. Pour in 130g water, stir until fully incorporated, then place it in the refrigerator. You can store it for as long as three weeks.
To serve, pour roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass packed with ice (traditionally one large cube). Drink promptly. For a traditional touch, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.
