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

Tale has it that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his team would succeed over a touring English team. To secure an advantage, he hosted a splendid party the night before the match, at which he offered his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were incredibly large four-finger measure whisky pours, customarily poured from pinky to forefinger. Predictably, the English players partook excessively, leaving them very the worse for wear and, inevitably, vanquished the following day. And so, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.

This inspired variation of old fashioned is inspired by that original drink. Here, we serve it from a bespoke large-format bottle, but we've modified the formula to make it better suited for a home environment.

Patiala Peg

Makes 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

725g blended Scotch
130g simple syrup
6g Angostura aromatic bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
A pinch of salt
2g xanthan gum powder

Method

Place everything in a large bottle. Pour in 130g water, stir thoroughly, then put it in the fridge. It can be stored for about 21 days.

For serving, measure out roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a old fashioned glass packed with ice (traditionally one big block). Enjoy straight away. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.