Mine I do with a drink glass, a shaker filled with ice, good gin and the minimum possible amount of vermouth. I fill the shaker with ice and then pour the gin in it. I stir the gin lightly until the shaker is beaded with condensation and then pour a little vermouth in the cocktail glass. I swill the glass until it’s covered with vermouth and then throw most of the excess out. Pour the diluted gin in the glass, add a speared olive and drink while it’s still cold.
I use Tanqueray usually but I’ve been trying Gordon and Beefeater with good results.
Also, does anybody know how to do a good dirty martini. Can you teach me?
I believe that a ‘dirty’ martini is simply made with some of the green olive brine.
If I crave such a flavor, I just avoid rinsing off the olives before adding them to the glass.
My personal favorite is the ‘Smokey Martini’[ul][li]Chill glass ahead of time[/li][li]Use ice that is so dry and cold it sticks to your flesh[/li][li]Pour one thimbleful of decent whisky into the glass[/li][li]Fill a chilled shaker with fresh ice[/li][li]Pour 2-3 jiggers of gin or vodka into the shaker[/li][li]Use preferred method of agitation[/li][li]Swirl and then remove whisky from chilled glass[/li][li]Strain Martini into glass[/li][li]Add, lemon peel or olive[/li][li]Consume with loud smacking of lips[/ul][/li]Rinse and repeat.
If you wish to add vermouth, the best way is to pour a shot of it over the ice and drain it off before introducing the liquor.
Every man has to believe in something and I believe I’ll make myself a Martini
“Slip out of those wet clothes and into a dry Martini”
[ul]THE THIN MAN[/ul]
Heretic! No martini is done with anything other than gin and vermouth.
I’m talking about martinis here. You’re talking about martini look-alikes.
Seriously now. Where I used to live the local bar made dirty martinis with some sort of chopped olives preparation that made the drink both tasty in a salty way and not salty in a nauseos way. What is the secret of this? My life is meaningless if I don’t learn how to make the ideal dirty martini.
There is something about a Martini,
A tingle remarkably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow Martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a Martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth–
I think that perhaps it’s the gin.
If you’ll just stop posting to your own thread for a moment, I’ll direct you to this thread. I’m sure there’s one or two ‘dirty’ Martini variants buried in there somewhere.
Rinse the shaker with Vermouth, shake repeatedly until droplets stop forming.
Add ice, 2oz. Bombay Sapphire, shake or stir as you like, pour into glass.
Now comes the hard part. I hate the taste of brine in my Martini, but I love the taste of olives that have spent some time in the Martini. The ones that are stored in Vermouth add too much Vermouth.
So far I’ve had good results with paper towel and squeezing for cleaning the olives prior to placing them in the drink.
I keep everything except the vermouth and olives in the freezer: the bottle of Bombay gin, the shaker and the glasses. You can’t get a martini too cold. I like vermouth in my martini - four parts gin to one part vermouth. Here is an excellent article extolling the virtues of a wet martini.
Oh - and why are martinis like breasts? Because one isn’t enough and three are too many.
2 shots Bombay Sapphire, 1/2 shot Martini Vermouth, stir with ice (because shaken gin tastes like lighter fluid, and I will send it back) strain into a cocktail glass, squeeze a lemon wedge overtop and drop it in.
Barbarian has just stated the recipe for the perfect Martini. It never fails to amaze me how many people drink gin slightly contaminated with vermouth residue and call it a Martini.
I cannot abide gin in any form, so I take mine with Vodka. As James Bond knew, vodka does not bruise like gin, so a Vodka martini should be shaken to insure it is ice cold. I like it with very little vermouth, maybe an 1/8 to 1/4 shot. toss in an olive(never a lemon), and mmmmmm… good times, good times.
Could someone please explain the “Martini Mystique” to me? Is it one of those “acquired taste” kind of things? And what’s the deal with adding one drop of vermouth? If you want a shot of straight gin (for whatever perverted reason), have one! Why even bother with the homeopathic dose of vermouth?
And why the olive? And what exactly is vermouth? So many questions.
Can’t answer all those(seriously how did the use of an olive start?), but I’ll give it a shot. Vermouth is a fortified(sometimes) white wine that has been infused with herbs. It’s not really ever used by itself, it’s designed to be mixed. Is it an acquired taste? I suppose so, though if you’ve acquired a taste for the liqour(either voddy or gin), there’s not much left to acquire. As far as the martini mystique, there is something psychological about it. Drinking one says that you want something strong, but not so vulgar as shots. It has a certain sophistication about it, which is, of course, totally manufactured, but exists nonetheless. also, James Bond didn’t hurt;)
Dissatisfied with the meager amount of vermouth? You may wish to try one of the more original recipes from the end of the nineteenth century. They called for three parts red Italian vermouth to one part ‘Old Tom Gin’ which was a bizarre sweet Genever concoction totally unlike London dry gin. To be authentic, you’d also have to drink this with a Maraschino cherry and even add a few drops of Boker’s bitters. If you could slurp this down without hurling, I’d even mix you another one.
Where and when an olive replaced the cherry remains lost to the ages.
One of my favorite exchanges from “West Wing” has to do with James Bond and Martinis. The president’s aide mentions a James Bond movie to the Pres and gets something like this in response:
“That whole shaken, not stirred, thing is wrong, you know. The reason a Martini is stirred using a special spoon is to prevent the ice from chipping. This guy is just ordering a watered down gin and being snotty about it.”
If you would like to sample what gin originally tasted like, try Dornkatt Genever. In a distinctive oblong green bottle, it is a close approximation of the early recipes that gin descended from. As with most liquors and liqueurs, gin started life as a medicinal tonic. It was invented in the 14[sup]th[/sup] century as a prophylactic against the black plague. Once viewed as a tonic, it is now instead mixed with tonic.
The term genever (Dutch for juniper) also derives from the French word for juniper, genievre. Juniper berries contribute the principal flavor present in gin. Many other exotic flowers and rare ingredients add to the floral top notes present. Almonds, oris root plus other flowers and herbs are placed in baskets or hung on racks in the ‘swan’s neck’ of the retort or ‘pot.’ Vapors rising from the mash of barley, oats and wheat waft through these ‘botanicals’ and give the resulting distillation its distinctive flavor.
Another interesting British gin is Boodles. Given 96 points out of 100 by the Beverage Testing Institute it remains rather true to the original nature of traditional genever schnapps. Many newer gins have purposefully diminished the intensity of the ‘botanicals’ in their recipes. While making the gin a bit smoother and less costly to manufacture, it also denudes the final product of its essential character.
