Cocktail for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Legend suggests that during 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would win over a visiting English side. For a competitive edge, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, at which he served his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These are notoriously large four-finger measure whisky servings, customarily measured from little finger to forefinger. Predictably, the English players partook excessively, leaving them terribly the worse for wear and, consequently, beaten the day after. And so, the legend of the Patiala peg came to be.

This inspired spin on the Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from that original beverage. Here, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adapted the formula to make it easier for a household environment.

The Patiala Peg Recipe

Produces 1 litre, enough for 10-12 portions.

Ingredients

• 725g blended Scotch
• 130g sugar syrup
• 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
• A dash of salt
• 2g xanthan gum powder

Instructions

Combine all the ingredients in a big container. Include 130g water, agitate until fully incorporated, then put it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for about 21 days.

To serve, dispense roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass packed with ice (ideally one big block). Enjoy straight away. To honour tradition, you could measure it in by hand instead.