Similar in many ways to my recipe for Gin and Tonic. The only thing missing is the part where you go inside the fridge to drink it...

Steve,

No vermouth??

Ed

What Ed said.

Not that I'm arguing or anything (who me?), but that sounds suspiciously like, well vodka in a glass.

Tanqueray, a tiny bit of vermouth (1/2 tsp), two olives (no juice).

Dang Steve - do you drink it or inject it stright in the vein?

Admittedly, though, the best thing about martinis is that they constitute a "sophisticated" excuse to slurp down large quantities of hard liquor. But the ritual aspect is important to me as well - the shaking and straining and olive-piercing. If I were a drug addict, I'd go with heroin for that reason. (Note to self - don't ever try heroin...)

Yip Yip Yip to ya, Steve!

Re the vermouth, here is a suggestion we once heard - pour a little into the glass, swirl it around a bit, then pour it out. Fill with vodka, proceed as normal.

Jim's got it, with LLama Butchers technique. I leave the Tanqueray bottle in the freezer all the time - the only drawback is that the little plastic pour control thingie seems to want to come loose.

Also, vary it a bit, by selecting olives stuffed with garlic, jalapeno, pimento, or unpitted. The anchovy stuffed one didn't work for me, tho.

Cheers!

Reminds me of Churchill's martini recipe:
1) Pour gin in glass
2) Look at a bottle of vermouth
3) Drink

I prefer to open a bottle of vermouth, wave it briefly in the direction of the glass of gin, and then drink. All a matter of taste, I guess.

Ditto scott h and slartibartfast.
Why would anyone ruin a good martini with vermouth?
I do like an olive (or an onion) though.

That's like my screwdriver recipe:

It's 1 part vodka, maybe some ice. Drink while thinking about orange juice.

Open vermouth bottle, hold glass behind bottle and blow over the top of the bottle.

Vermouth.

Additional Steps:

1a. Put bottle of Vermouth in Freezer

4a. Look at bottle of Vermouth, but do not touch.

Re: Vermouth

The proper way to do it is to hold up the unopened bottle of vermouth so that it casts a shadow on the martini. Just for a second, though; you don't want to add too much.

All of the "perfect dry martini" jokes aside... if it does not have vermouth, it's gin or vodka in a cocktail glass with an olive.

And... a Manhattan is not a Manhattan without bitters...

Royce

Absolut? C'mon, Charodei is where it's at.

My recipe:

1) Vodka and glass in freezer.
2) Vermouth in spray bottle.
3) Remove glass from freezer, lightly mist inside with Vermouth spray.
4) Fill with Vodka, add orange peel.
5) Drink. Repeat. Often.

i prefer to add apple pucker to it instead of vermouth otherwise it is just a shot.

Though I hate to be a negative nellie, Royce is spot on. A martini without Vermouth is just Gin. Now a proper dry martini, that's each man's own fancy.

I quite prefer pouring a generous helping of dry vermouth (at least an ounce) in the shaker then pouring it out so that only the residual vermouth on the ice and the inside of the shaker remains to which I add the Tanqueray (enough for at least a double). Double the olives and savour the flavour...in fact I think I'll be having one now. :-)

Ditto the vermouth-dumper-outers. If I'm feeling fancy, I use equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, poured simultaneously, with flourishes.

Very similar to my method but... I add a spicy Sicilian olive adn an eye dropper of vermouth for flavor. Also I have a shaker with one of the blue plastic sleeves you leave in the freezer. Works great with company (of by myself when I'm having a few)

Vodka Mart, Canadian style:

Soak glass in cold water and put it in the freezer, along with the bottle of Stolichnya thats been in there for a few hours already.

After glass has chilled and frosted, combine vodka with a hint of vermouth in the bottom of a cocktail shaker, half filled with ice.

Swirl contents slowly (do not shake, or your life is forfit),

Strain and garnish with a huge slice of lemon peal.

Enjoy. [he's only 19 years old folks, won't somebody think of the children? -Ed]

Opps: for a truely Canadian martini, use the snow covered porch instead of a freezer.

Tanqueray No. 10 is the most sublime of all. And if it is a martini, there's gotta be some vermouth in it. For a another great gin drink, substitute a bone-dry fino sherry for the vermouth.

noting your suggestion of bombay sapphire gin, i could tell you like the gin that is most vodka-like. in the last 2 years, however, tanqueray 10 has taken over that spot. I personally won't touch the stuff (original tanqueray, or even better, junipera), but my wife has taken to it with abandon

Tito's vodka from Texas is su-poib. I used to use the wave-the-bottle-of-vermouth-over-the-glass method until I got a bottle of Meier's (of Cincinnati) Dry Vermouth. Not bad, not bad at all.

Sean, I saw that some Canadian vodka placed 2nd on a taste survey (behind Grey Goose which is great, but French). I think it was called "something Rain". Any help?

The Canadian Vodka that came in second is 'Iceberg Vodka', made of corn alcohol and 12000 year old glacier ice 'harvested' from icebergs off Newfoundland.

I just recently kept a bottle of it outside at close to 40 below. The contents were quite frozen but after a few minutes a very smooth 'vodka syrup' came pouring out.

Lovely.

Thomas W, Yellowknife, NWT

Will Allen - Veeeeery Eeeenteresting suggestion re gin and sherry. Has it got a name? For a good dry Fino, I heartily recommend Tio Pepe.

As to drinks that are pure liquor, ever tried a Gin and Bitters? Pour a generous amount of Angostura Bitters into a chilled martini glass, swirl around until the glass is coated up to the top. Pour out excess bitters and fill with gin. The bitters will coat the glass, tinting the drink a delicious red-brown and giving a spicy redolence to the gin, which needn't be the best.

Chorus: Frozen Russian vodka poured into a frozen martini glass, sprayed lightly with dry vermouth from an atomizer. Add two cold olives on a long, chilled toothpick. Drink.

Repeat Chorus, and keep repeating until Moscow has been liberated.

I'm glad someone addressed the poor quality of vodka listed. Ketel One kicks the ass of Absolut up and down the block, which is kind of odd considering its neutral origins. Otherwise the recipie is fine, but needs the addition of a lemon twist. The lemon oil from the rind that you apply to the rim of the glass adds a sublime bite to the vodka, a flavor you can relish even after the drink has made its way to the next stop.

LLama Butchers & Will: I've heard the Fino/Gin combination called a 'Double Dry'. Been meaning to try one - maybe this weekend.

Cheers,

Glenn

I go 1/3 oz of Noilly Prat to 2 oz of Tanqueray, vigorously shaken a la Steve Dunn with a little slice of lime in the shaker that gets pulverised and mixed into the drink. Garnish: three cocktail onions on a stick (much better than olives, unless they're Calamatas). Put 1 oz of Teichenné apple schnapps in there with a tiny dusting of cinnamon and make the world's best Sour Apple. Yum!

As for screwdrivers: 2 oz Absolut Mandrin or Stoli Oranj, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1 1/2 oz Seville orange juice, rocks, 8 oz orange juice, shake, pour into a 14 oz highball with the rim sugared. Or put it in a blender and make Screwdriver Smoothies (this wrinkle due to my friend Connie 'the fish are in the street' Sepulveda, when we got very trashed one night doing just that).

Aside - terminology: a 'dry' martini is one using only dry Vermouth. If it's all sweet Vermouth, then it's 'Italian,' as in 'Gin and Its.' Half-and-half is 'perfect.' Thus there is a difference between a perfect martini and the perfect martini. 'Dry' does not mean 'no vermouth'.

To Robert Spiers (and anyone else who's interested, I guess):
The finest of all pure-liquor mixed drinks is the Three Wise Men, which consists of equal parts Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and George Dickel. I highly recommend you pour this one over some ice and take a good long while savoring it.

Jon - Three Wise Men is a shot, taken in two horrendous gulps.

Crap bourbon, crap whiskey, crap bourbon.

You want to savor brown liquor of the bourbonic type, at least set your baseline at Maker's Mark.

A man has to have his standards.

Come now, Mark. Dickel isn't THAT bad.

I'd replace the Jack with Evan Williams, and the Jim with some sort of Rye whiskey (I mean *pure rye*, ala Old Overhold or Jim Beam Rye).

But I'm the sort of sick bastard that likes rye whiskey.

Somewhere above someone got it almost correct with using a spray bottle for vermouth. Only instead of spraying the glass after it's been in the freezer, apply one or two (I prefer one) spray[s] into the glass BEFORE freezing and the vermouth forms ice crystals and eases itself into the vodka/gin as you drink. Yum.