06.08.06
The Martini
The Martini is among the best of cocktails, if not the best. (Cocktails, unlike highballs, are undiluted with water, juice, soda, etc.)
The Martini was so popular and well-known that Ian Fleming, to characterize James Bond as a person who flouted convention, had him favor a vodka Martini (a true Martini uses gin) and had it “shaken, not stirred.” Unfortunately, the “shaken, not stirred” line lived on in the public mind as Martini knowledge waned, so that today some believe that the Martini is supposed to be shaken and not stirred, a major mistake: if you use the Martini ingredients and shake rather than stir, you get not a Martini, but a Bradford, a drink that resembles the Martini except that it’s polluted with tiny ice chips that melt rapidly and dilute the taste.
Here’s the way to prepare a true Martini:
a) Put the Martini glass in the freezer well before the cocktail hour. This is important. (I keep a Martini glass in the freezer all the time.) If the glass is not thoroughly cold, it will immediately warm the drink. (The shape of the Martini glass is, I speculate, to make the drink seem smaller (i.e., shallower) than it is, encouraging the drinker to believe that s/he is drinking less than s/he is.)
b) Get out the refrigerated olives and spear one or two with an appropriate implement (a small bamboo olive pick, a sterling silver olive pick, or even a toothpick).
c) Fill the pitcher or shaker with ice cubes—not shaved ice nor crushed ice, which would dilute the drink excessively. Use a lot of ice compared to the amount of gin and vermouth so that the liquids will be quickly chilled. Since refrigerator cubes will adsorb odors, they should be rinsed before use. (With adsorption, the odors are confined to the surface.)
d) Pour room-temperature gin (Seagram’s Extra Dry, Gordon’s London Dry, Hendrick’s, Bombay, Bombay Sapphire, Boodles, Tanqueray, etc.—any excellent London Dry Gin—or, best of all, Plymouth gin, which is not a London Dry Gin) and Noilly Prat dry vermouth (no substitution here) over the ice in the ratio you favor. I go for 4 or 5 parts gin to 1 of vermouth. Ratios of 7-1 or 8-1 seem ridiculous. The vermouth is part of the drink. If you chill the gin ahead of time (some keep it in the freezer), you don’t achieve enough melt for a proper Martini.
e) Stir—do not shake—for the time it takes to sing two verses of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”: about 21 seconds. I use a cocktail shaker with an integral strainer, and I swirl the liquid around in the shaker while I sing.
f) Strain immediately into the pre-chilled Martini glass, and add the speared olive(s).
g) Twist a lemon peel over the surface of the drink and discard the peel. This puts a few tiny droplets of lemon oil on the surface to add to the aroma of the drink.
Enjoy.
You can find a small atomizer that purports to be a way to spray a mist of vermouth over a glass of chilled gin to make a Martini. This use is a joke (and a poor one), but the atomizer is useful if filled with lemon oil to spray a mist of the oil over the surface of the Martini (or Old Fashioned, Manhattan, or other cocktail). Boyajian sells 5-oz. bottles of lemon oil (the oil from 355 lemons) that works well. Note that you want lemon oil, not lemon-flavored oil (e.g., olive oil infused with lemons). The lemon oil is to be refrigerated once the bottle is opened, but the atomizer works even if it’s kept in the refrigerator.
UPDATE: Note to self: Try Citadelle gin and Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry, dry white.
UPDATE 2: The NY Times evaluated a number of gins as “Martini gins.” Take a look.
Happy Jack the early bird said,
12 June 2006 at 10:20 am
Reminds me of “Gracious Living” at the institution before Friday night lecture.
A. McNair said,
2 December 2006 at 3:37 pm
How is it a vodka martini when it’s made with 3 oz of Gordon’s Gin.
LeisureGuy said,
2 December 2006 at 3:41 pm
You’re referring to the recent James Bond movie with Daniel Craig, I believe. Actually, the history of James Bond goes back much further than that, and I was referring to the original novels by Ian Fleming.
But, to answer your question, a Martini made with gin is indeed not a vodka Martini (made, as the name suggests, with vodka). That said, Gordon’s (obviously a product placement) would definitely not be my choice for a Martini gin. YMMV.
David F, said,
30 December 2006 at 11:44 pm
I am a bit of a non-conformist and love to make a “dirty” martini. Mine are dirtier than you get at bars. At the neighborhood pub a dirty martini will fetch the above (probably shaken) with a splash of olive juice from the jar of olives mixed in. I go a step further and sqeeze several drops of lemon (including some pulp) into the mix along with olive juice. It comes out fresh and tangy. Now, this drink may have another name out there, but I like to call it a “dirty” martini. BTW, olives stuffed with smoked garlic or bleu cheese are an added treat.
michaelskar said,
10 January 2007 at 1:41 pm
great post…I do LOVE a good martini. I will have to try the vermouth you mentioned (Noilly Prat). I especially liked how you pointed out that the vermouth actually does need to be added to the drink to make it a martini…otherwise it would be chilled gin.
BTW, just got some QED soaps I can’t wait to try!
Mr. Santoro said,
4 March 2007 at 3:33 pm
I drink my martinis the way Mr David does, and I have tried the olives stufed with bleu cheese; they’re great!
Andrew Hammond said,
19 March 2007 at 4:23 pm
I’ve always liked the silver onion garnish of a gibson martini.
silvia said,
18 April 2007 at 5:57 am
well, I am from Chile, and the best I ever knew about a good Martini, is the one I found already bottled!! nothing like this one, I enjoyed it a lot, and now I think I am able to make it myself without feeling ashamed.
Very good tips aswell.
Thanks
Love
Silvia
Paul said,
5 June 2007 at 1:51 am
Indeed, do try Citadelle Gin as noted. It tastes like Chanel perfume smells. Wow.
Nova said,
13 February 2008 at 10:10 am
I remembered to come back here to say thanks for the recipe - we used it last night, although to be fair I can’t remember much about it!
Thanks again
Samuel said,
2 May 2008 at 2:31 pm
9AKhfm Hello! I’m Samuel Smith, i’m from Switqerland i and find your site really brilliant!