Gin, stirred
Dirty Martini
Barline 2,h,q,cO
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 2 oz Gin
- 1/2 oz Dry vermouth
- 1/4 oz Olive brine
Stir with ice until cold, then strain.
Coupe, olive.
Taste
Two ounces of gin, half an ounce of dry vermouth, a quarter ounce of brine from the olive jar. The brine is salt and a little vinegar, and it turns the drink savoury and slightly cloudy. Juniper first, then salt, then the vermouth. Stirred, coupe, an olive.
History
John O'Connor at the Waldorf-Astoria is credited with the first one in 1901, a Martini with olives muddled into it. Brine as a measured ingredient prints by 1930 in G. H. Steele's My New Cocktail Book. Franklin Roosevelt mixed his own at two parts gin to one of vermouth with a spoon of brine and an olive, and poured them for Churchill and Stalin. This menu pours two ounces of gin, half an ounce of dry vermouth, and a quarter ounce of brine, stirred, coupe, olive.
Same shape, other bottles
The Martini family, with the bottle that changed.
- Vodka Martinivodka for gin
- Corpse Reviver No. 1cognac, apple brandy, and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Fanciullibourbon and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Red Hookrye and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Yacht Clublight rum and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
- Bensonhurstrye for gin
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.