Drink of the Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Tale claims that back in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was set that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. To secure an advantage, he organized a lavish party the night before the match, where he served his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are incredibly substantial four-finger whisky pours, historically measured from pinky to index finger. Predictably, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being very hungover and, inevitably, defeated the day after. And so, the story of the Patiala peg was born.

This Punjabi variation of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from Singh's concoction. At the restaurant, we serve it from a bespoke large-format bottle, but we've adapted the instructions to make it more suitable for a domestic kitchen.

Patiala Peg

Yields 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

• 725g blended scotch whisky
• 130g sugar syrup
• 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
• A small pinch of salt
• 2g xanthan gum powder

Preparation

Place everything in a large bottle. Add 130g water, stir thoroughly, then place it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for up to 21 days.

To serve, dispense about 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass containing ice (ideally one big block). Enjoy straight away. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.