Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Legend has it that during 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was determined that his cricket team would succeed over a visiting English team. To gain the upper hand, he organized a splendid party on the eve of the match, where he presented his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are notoriously generous four-finger measure whisky servings, traditionally poured from little finger to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players partook excessively, leaving them terribly hungover and, inevitably, defeated the following day. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.

This take on a spin on the Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from that original concoction. In our establishment, we serve it from a custom-made 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 people.

Ingredients

• 725g Scotch whisky blend
• 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
• 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
• A dash of salt
• 2g xanthan gum

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients in a big container. Pour in 130g water, mix thoroughly, then put it in the fridge. You can store it for up to a few weeks.

For serving, measure out about 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a old fashioned glass filled with ice (ideally one big block). Enjoy immediately. For a traditional touch, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.