Cocktail of the Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe
Folklore has it that during 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was set that his cricket team would win over a visiting English team. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a grand party on the eve of the match, where he presented his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These are notoriously generous four-finger whisky pours, customarily gauged from little finger to forefinger. Predictably, the English players drank too much, leaving them terribly hungover and, consequently, beaten the day after. Thus, the myth of the Patiala peg came to be.
This take on a variation of Old Fashioned cocktail is inspired by the Maharaja's concoction. In our establishment, we serve it from a custom-made large-format bottle, but we've adapted the instructions to make it more suitable for a home kitchen.
Patiala Peg
Makes 1 litre, serving 10-12 people.
Ingredients
- 725g blended scotch whisky
- 130g sugar syrup
- 6g Angostura aromatic bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
- 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
- A dash of salt
- 2g xanthan gum powder
Preparation
Place everything in a big container. Include 130g water, agitate to combine, then place it in the refrigerator. You can store it for about three weeks.
For serving, dispense roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass containing ice (traditionally one big block). Serve straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could use the four-finger measure for authenticity.
