| 2 1/12 fl oz | Hayman's London Dry Gin |
| 1/2 fl oz | Strucchi Dry Vermouth (chilled) |
| 1/3 fl oz | Olive brine (from jarred olives) (chilled) |
Read about cocktail measures and measuring.
How to make:
- Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
- Prepare garnish of skewered Fragata Green Olives.
- STIR all ingredients with ice.
- STRAIN into chilled glass.
- Garnish with skewered olives.
Allergens:
Recipe contains the following allergens:
- Strucchi Dry Vermouth – Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites
AKA:
F.D.R. Martini after the American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Strength & taste guide:
Review:
As with all Martinis, striking a perfect level of dilution and achieving an ice-cold serving temperature (helped by chilling/freezing all ingredients, the glass and garnish) is key. However, a Dirty Martini introduces another element, olive brine, and your choice of olives and accompanying brine will make or break this cocktail. (Beware, olives packed in oil produce a revolting emulsion.) Then there's the question of how much olive brine to use, and personal tastes see this vary from 5ml to 15ml. I've found that my taste is middle of the road at 10ml (⅓oz).
(In place of olive brine, five dashes of The Bitter Truth's Olive Bitters work well.)
Variant:
Substitute vodka for gin.
Filthy Dirty Martini
History:
Cocktail historian David Wondrich has traced the origins of the Dirty Martini back to 1901 and a bartender called John E. O'Connor, who served a Dry Martini with muddled olives at New York's Waldorf Astoria.
The first written reference to brine being added to a Martini-style cocktail appears in G.H. Steele's 1930 My New Cocktail Book.
Good story: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President, a keen home bartender, is often connected to this cocktail. However, besides a story that Joseph Stalin recommended he sip pickle juice and vodka as a cure for a hangover at the Yalta Conference in 1945, there is no evidence that he used olive brine in his Martinis. Besides, his cocktails were reportedly "horrendous".
PERFECT (a la Hyland)
G. F. Steele, 1930
50% Plymouth Gin
50% French Vermouth
Angostura bitters
Orange bitters
Peychaud bitters
Olive brine (1 teaspoon)
Also see: The Martini and its evolution
Nutrition:
One serving of Dirty Martini contains 165 calories.
Alcohol content:
- 1.6 standard drinks
- 25.6% alc./vol. (51.2° proof)
- 22.4 grams of pure alcohol
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