The Perfect Martini

ice_tea

Can you imagine James Bond asking for a chocolate butterscotch martini? Or an apple martini, lemon drop martini or prickly pear martini?

Putting a drink in a long-stemmed V-shaped glass does not make it a martini. A martini is this: gin and dry vermouth. And maybe an olive or two. Or a twist of lemon peel. It is ice cold and crystal clear, never green or pink.

Bonny Wolf's Recipe

I like a martini with about a 4 to 1/2 ratio of gin to vermouth. I love the sharp juniper flavor of gin. Martini maven Bernard DeVoto wrote that the perfect ratio was 3.7 to one.

4 ounces London dry gin
1/2 ounce French vermouth
2-3 large green olives

Pour gin and vermouth into a shaker filled with ice. Shake for one minute, then strain into a V-shaped cocktail glass. Garnish with olives on a martini pick.

History

There are several stories about where the martini got its name. They include the claims that it was named for Martini & Rossi vermouth or for the Martini & Henry rifle used by the British army in the late 1800s (both had a strong kick).

I like the story that in 1874, a miner plopped a bag of gold nuggets down on a bar in Martinez, Calif., and asked the bartender to make him something special. The bartender mixed up what he called a Martinez cocktail. The city has put up a brass plaque identifying itself as the birthplace of the martini.

Shaken Or Stirred?

This is a raging controversy among martini drinkers. James Bond insisted on shaken, not stirred. Stirring, he said, bruises the gin. British writer W. Somerset Maugham, on the other hand, said, "Martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."

The Martini, by Barnaby Conrad III, in which many of these facts were found, is a delightful, illustrated history of the martini.

hotday

J.B.G.

registered

ranchgirl

Thanks