Martini FAQ

Yeps.. since you have such a nice fod blog...
I usually try to have a martini before a nice dinner, sort of makes the food taste better. Sort of cleansing the palaete and disinhibiting the brain, what is your experience. How much and how far in advance?

amador said:

Yeps.. since you have such a nice fod blog...
I usually try to have a martini before a nice dinner, sort of makes the food taste better. Sort of cleansing the palaete and disinhibiting the brain, what is your experience. How much and how far in advance?

Click to expand...

I don't drink much. When I have had Martini's it has been either immediately before dinner (my 21st Birthday) or when out with friends in the evening. My go-to recently switched from Martini to Old Fashioned.

You can buy dry vermouth soaked olives and onions online (and at wegmans in store) as well as my favorite, whiskey soaked cherries which I use for manhattans. Personally I think you're wrong if you drink a martini with vodka and more so if you mix the main spirit with anything other than vermouth and still try to call it a martini. Those other drinks may be served in a martini glass, but they are not martinis. My caveat to the classic style is that I shake all of my martinis (I shake every drink I make). I know this clouds the drink which is frowned on but I find the texture you get from shaking (and mixing in all those air bubbles and creating ice shards) to be much more enjoyable and that it makes for a colder martini as well.

My personal favorite is the gibson because if you get a really crisp cocktail onion (hard to find in stores for some reason) it can really bring the drink along.

Great to see someone talk sense about Martinis for once! A good comprehensive article.
Some new information has come out on the origins, it keeps growing, I know it's going to be covered in a new edition of Jared and Anistatia's book which is due out later in 2012. I think it puts played to the idea that Martini is a permutation of Martinez and it actually has more to do with the brand.

A very detailed FAQ, for sure. Although I definitely consider myself to be a "prescriptivist," I think it might be useful to have an appendix of some recipe variations. For example, Patrick Gavin Duffy's 1934 "Official Mixer's Manual" lists several martini recipes, including the Dry (which uses dry French Vermouth), Sweet (with sweet Italian Vermouth), and Medium (sometimes otherwise known as "perfect," 1/2 and 1/2 Italian and French Vermouth) Martini. It's interesting to note that some of the older recipes call for a dash of orange bitters, which I find adds a nice top-note to a martini served with a lemon twist.