There are two basic kinds of vermouth: sweet and dry. Though made from different bases, they are both fortified wines, meaning alcohol (brandy) is added. Dry vermouth ranges in color from nearly clear to yellow. Sweet vermouth is typically red. Dry vermouth is used in the traditional martini.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to refer to sweet vermouth as having “sugar added.” The wine is made by starting with a sweet wine (muscat usually), fortifying it and adding other botanicals for flavor. This vermouth would typically be used in a manhattan.
Put ice and 2 maraschino cherries into a 12 oz tumbler.
Put ice into your shaker.
1/3 cup of bourbon into your shaker.
Using the same 1/3 cup, fill it up about 1/3 of its way with sweet vermouth and pour into your shaker.
Add 1.5 dashes of Fee Brother’s Angostura Bitters to the shaker.
5.5) (optional) add a little juice from the marachino cherry jar to the shaker for extra sweetness.
Shake your shaker, vigorously.
Strain the frothy drink into the tumbler. (again, some prefer a clear, stirred , “unbruised” :rolleyes: drink. I prefer the cloudy conconction. . .reminds me of a foggy ocean sunrise.)
you’re not quite done, though.
Sip your drink until the first cherry stem appears above the surface. Pluck the cherry from the drink and feed it to your wife. Toss the stem back in the drink. Her lips have imparted magical epicurial qualities to the end of the stem (*).
Sip your improved drink until you see the next cherry stem. Pluck the cherry from the drink, eat, and toss the stem back.
Now at this point, you have a couple options. . .
a) Finish your drink
b) Freshen it up with a little more straight bourbon. Continue to sip until the level drops to a dangerous level. Now at this point, you have a couple options. . .
a) Finish your drink
b) Freshen it up wtih a little more straight bourbon. Continue to sip until the level drops to a dangerous level. Now at this point, you have a couple options. . .
a) Finish your drink
b) Freshen it up wtih a little more straight bourbon. Continue to sip until the level drops to a dangerous level. Now at this point, you have a couple options. . .
a) Finish your drink
b) Freshen it up wtih a little more straight bourbon. Continue to sip until the level drops to a dangerous level. Now at this point, you have a couple options. . .
a) Finish your drink
b) Freshen it up wtih a little more straight bourbon. Continue to sip until the level drops to a dangerous level. Now at this point, you have a couple options. . . . . . . . . . .
(*) If you have children, this is an excellent time to introduce them to the wonders of alcohol by giving them the bourbon-soaked cherry.
I drink Martinis up, but I like my Manhattans rocky.
And I was only half-joking to say that I like to fortify it when it gets low. I like having some ice left for that. I’m not a “bourbon neat” kind of guy.
In a canning jar, layer fresh washed cherries (2 inches) with a layer of sugar cubes. Alternate until the jar is packed full. Add several cloves to the jar. Fill to the brim with cheap bourbon (I use “10 High”). Do this until you run out of canning jars, cherries or bourbon. Place in closet for six months. Do not disturb.
When serving, spoon the cherries over French Vanilla ice cream and pour the liquid into a liqueur glass. Sublime!
A while back I followed Ass for a Hat’s advice and increased the ratio of Vermouth to gin, and was well pleased with the results. If you want to drink something that tastes good, and not just be seen drinking something that looks sophisticated, try the following recipe:
2 cups Good Gin (I like Citadelle)
1/4 cup sweet vermouth
1/4 cup dry vermouth
1/4 cup water (what do you think happens when you chill your drink - the ice melts a bit)
Add each slowly to a one liter bottle, and keep in the freezer.
I drink mine from a large cordial glass. I find a martini glass, with the wide mouth, tends to allow my drink to warm up too quickly.
I used to use a 5:1 ratio of gin (4.5oz) to vermouth (3/4 oz). But lately I have cut that in half or less. One day I will try the vermouth coated ice trick. I use the Martini brand of vermouth, it seems appropriate and I find it not as sour as Nolly Pratt, which is the other commonly found vermouth where I live. The gin is Bombay, but I have heard a lot of good things about Citadel here at the SDMB and I will have to give that a try also.
Ex-bartender who used to make buckets of tips on the martinis he made (this was well before the current martini craze) here -
Ogre’s Orgiastic Filthy Martini:
Prepare glasses. Decant a tiny amount of dry vermouth into chilled glass. Coat inside of glass by swirling. Discard extra vermouth.
Pour 2 ounces of good gin (never vodka! Jesus!) over clean, cracked ice cubes in shaker.
Pour 2 ounces of the nastiest, saltiest, most wonderful olive juice you can find into shaker.
Place 2 large manzanilla olives in shaker.
Shake the ever-lovin’ bejeezus out of the mix until the ice tears apart the olives and you have fine olive particles floating around.
Strain into prepared glass, garnish with as many olives as you can stand.
Sip, while shuddering with delight.
Seriously, if martinis were like sex, this one would be breathless, sweaty, madly grinding, knock-over-the-TV, funky sex. By contrast, the following martini would be refined, slow, intense lovemaking. Either way, it’s hard to complain.
Ogre’s Classic Martini (with a twist)
Prepare glasses as above. Coat the entire inside with a fine film of dry vermouth by swirling and discard the excess vermouth.
Pour 2 ounces of good gin over clean, cracked ice.
Shake vigorously, until gin/ice are cloudy.
Strain into prepared glass.
Twist one strip of fresh lime peel, rub lime oil on rim of glass.
Drop lime twist into martini.
Sip, while shuddering with delight.
The lime oil (not juice!) is the absolute perfect complement to the juniper flavor of the gin. Divine.
Funny how a product we use so little of in our martinis can be a preference, but it is. When I use vermouth (which I do), I prefer Noilly Prat. Heck, I like it so much, I’ll sometimes have a glass of it on the rocks. But I’m not keen on a glass of Martini vermouth.
Ogre, great recipes! I’m going to have to try them.
Sorry to continue the hijack…but I’m enjoying a Trunk’s Manhattan right now. I’d like to report that it is quite delicious. My normal regime was pretty close, the exceptions being that I typically stir, and I typically keep the rocks that I stir with in with the drink. Well, those and the fact that I use brandy. I may be a convert on the first two items. Thank you, sir.
Unfortunately, I have deviated in a key area. I went to fish out a couple cherries to put in the bottom of the glass, and to my horror I find that the whole jar is stemless. Stemless! Thus, the second half of my drink has not been imparted the wife magic you describe. That’s the last jar of The Royal Cherry that I’ll be buying. Bastards.
Next on the itinerary, Maus Magill’s funky freezer martini. That may have to wait for the weekend though.
This is why I love the SDMB…best drinkers on the web!
The key is sugar syrup and fresh limes. Pour the Rose’s in the compost heap. Foul stuff.
Sugar syrup: Boil water a couple quarts of water. Dump a pound of sugar in. Stir. Cool. Store in fridge.
Limes: Go to local fruiteria. Better limes, and cheaper than the Jewel’s. Sqeeze about 5. Put juice in Martini shaker. (about 1/4 full.) Add a like amount of the syrup. Add half a dozen ice cubes. Open freezer. Remove vodka.
(The vodka’s not in your freezer? Too bad. Go buy some wine coolers.)
I’ve never tried it with brandy. Sounds good though.
FWIW, I typically use a very cheap bourbon called “Old Heaven Hill”. It’s sort of sweet, but tasty and mellow, not harsh at all as one might expect from a cheap bourbon.
I do keep some Maker’s Mark around. It might be a little better than the Heaven Hill, but it’s not worth the extra money, IMO.
Bourbon drinkers, try the “Old Heaven Hill” sometime.
I’m with you there. No sense in cutting good booze with cheap vermouth. On a lark once I made a Manhattan with Courvoisier. It just didn’t taste right. I use E&J VSOP as my standard brandy. $20 for a big ass jug. Suits me pretty well.
As long as this thread is being kept alive, I’ll ask another question.
Is it wrong to keep the gin in the freezer? Should I keep it at room temperature and rely on only the shaking or stirring with ice to achieve the necessary coldness?
For the purposes of martinis, yes, it is wrong to keep gin in the freezer. You need some of the ice to melt into the drink during shaking/stirring. Some people seem to like the freezer gin, but those people are all going to hell.
If you’re using it for gin & tonics or other mixed drinks, I don’t think it’s as much of a problem.
Pour 1/2 bottle of Bombay Blue Saphire into glass decanter.
Pour 1/2 capful of dry vermouth into decanter (use the cap from the vermouth bottle)
Set in fridge
after chilling;remove from fridge and pour into Martini glass (a very large martini glass like the cheap ones with the cactus base that you buy in bordertown Mexican tourist shops are recomended)
Garnish with 1 garlic stuffed olive and 2 jalapeno stuffed olives (if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that has “Mama Rapp’s” stuffed garlic and jalapeno olives consider yourself luckier than Bubbadog0
