Let's share martini recipes!

I'm actually shocked there isn't a martini thread here yet! So I guess I am starting one.

What are your favorite martini recipes? Serious ones or fun ones...

My favorite for a couple years now is (I got it from the liquor distributor who does tasings at my grocery store and modified it slightly):

1 part Absolut Mandarin
1 part peach schnapps
1 part lemonade

This is so good. I am generally not a sweet drink lover, but I think since the vodka is just flavored with mandarin and not sugary, it doesn't turn me off. It is also good on the rocks.

I saw this today on FoodTV, albeit on Semi Homemade (yikes), but it seems like it would be good for the sweet drink lovers, and a great signature drink for a birthday party:

Icing on the Cake Martini Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee

1 shot spiced rum (recommended: Captain Morgan's)
1/2 shot butterscotch schnapps
1/2 shot vanilla schnapps
1 shot half-and-half
Ice
Candy confetti, for garnish

Add all ingredients, except candy confetti, to cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a sprinkle of candy confetti.

I'm going to have to try that one...although maybe without the candy.

So...whatcha got?

What you listed are not martinis but drinks that are served in a martini style glass. Martinis are made with gin and vermouth. I like mine very dry....

I saw this today on FoodTV, albeit on Semi Homemade (yikes),

Honestly, cocktails are the only things I might listen to Sandra Lee about. Unless (as they often are) they're made up of a half-bottle of Southern Comfort, some pink lemonade concentrate from a can and some club soda.

Otherwise, yeah - it's interesting the way the word "martini" has been transmogrified over the past few years. My 86 year old grandmother who still has her daily afternoon martini with her "stories" wouldn't recognize it, but who am I to decry someone a cinnamon-sugar rim with their Apple Pucker and vodka?

(Actually, I probably would. But I'm not a "martini" fan anyways.)

It's not my drink, but surely my favorite recipe is the great Surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel's, as described in his delightful memoir My Last Sigh:

To provoke, or sustain, a reverie in a bar, you have to drink English gin, especially in the form of a martini. To be frank, given the primordial role played in my life by the dry martini, I really think I ought to give it at least a page. Like all cocktails, the martini, composed essentially of gin and a few drops of Noilly Prat, seems to have been an American invention. Connoisseurs who like their martinis very dry suggest simply allowing a ray of sunlight to shine through a bottle of Noilly Prat before it hits the bottle of gin. At a certain period in America it was said that the making of a dry martini should resemble the Immaculate Conception, for, as Saint Thomas Aquinas once noted, the generative powers of the Holy Ghost pierced the virgin’s hymen 'like a ray of sunlight through a window – leaving it unbroken.'

http://cinepad.com/martini.html

I remember my father had a tongue-in-cheek research paper published by the US Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in the 1950s (?) on making the perfect martini. It contained an in-depth study of the "irradiation" method, which involved placing a bottle of gin a precise distance from a bottle of vermouth and shining a certain intensity and frequency of light through the bottle of vermouth to transport its essence into the gin. It had lots of graphs and formulae for calculating the optimum parameters including compensating for the color and thickness of the glass used in the bottles. I know you used to actually be able to order the "study" from the Government Printing Office.

I know this may be perceived as heretical but I like mine on the rocks:

Pre-chilled highball glass (the heavier the better)
One Micro-spritz dry vermouth from the mister in the glass
Add 6 ice cubes (from the tray with bottled water, not from the icemaker)
Two large Spanish pitted green olives hand-stuffed with Pont Reyes
3 oz. Bombay (regular, not Sapphire)
Stir once around the glass and enjoy

For me, the key to excellent flavor is to make the drink as cold as possible and using large ice cubes that melt slower is a must-do. One should not stir more than once around the glass either, as this "bruises" the gin

For me, this makes the perfect prelude to rare Prime Rib.

mhill95149 wrote:Martinis are made with gin and vermouth.

I agree, though I think this battle has long been lost, starting with James Bond and his shaken-not-stirred vodka concoction.

I like to taste the vermouth, so I prefer martinis on the wet side, even as much as three to one. Here's a favorite:

3 parts Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater, chilled
1 part Noilly Prat
Dash orange bitters
Ice cubes
Lemon twist

Stir gin and vermouth with ice, strain into a martini glass and serve with a twist.

Eatchicago's post about Lillet prompts me to add that Lillet blanc makes a fine substitute for vermouth in martinis.

A martini made with Lillet was a standard at the Blackhawk Lodge, but was not to my taste adding a slight sweetness and orange flavor. It might have worked better in a vodka martini, but for martinis I stick to Noilly Pratt or Boissiere.

Okay,I understand the point of the traditionalist,however,this is the era of molecular gastronomy and edible menus.there are no inhibitions and no boundaries.I made Neuskie's bacon ice cream last week and served it with hot steamy apple-sausage dumplings and syrup!!!My grandmother would question with her mid-western tongue and tell me to take that garbage out of her kitchen then call me a doctor.The point here is to have fun and eat and drink what YOU like.
So,after my spiel,my favorite martini is a recent creation:
(I can't believe it's not a martini, martini)

1 shot Modern Spirits Truffle vodka
1 shot Kamora (coffee liqueur)
2 shots milk or cream
It has a wonderful truffle ending and is very smooth.....enjoy

While I understand and enjoy the vodka Martini vs. gin Martini debate, the abuse of the Martini name should be stopped.

When I read a recipie that has "Martini" or the -tini suffix added on to it, but the drink is not 75% composed of vodka or gin, I never consider it any form of Martini.

I fail to comprehend WHY any establishent feels the need to label liquors shaken and served straight up as as Martini. Perhaps it's marketing or perhaps its America's love/hate relationship with alcohol. After all, a drink "straight up" makes you an alcoholic. However a "Martini" makes you hip!

That being said, I love dry vodka Martinis. Especially if they have bleu cheese olives. Sometimes, when I feel a need to honor its roots, I'll use a smidge of gin to flavor my vodka Martini instead of a smidge of vermouth.

Kim

Richard Nixon style:

Pour a shot of vermouth into a shaker with crushed ice. Shake well. Pour vermouth out. Add vodka to the vermouth coated ice. Shake until frosty. Pour into chilled glass and garnish.

I prefer a lemon twist in mine. And the vodka has to be super cold. Ketel One or Level are my preferred brands.

sugarsnap wrote:Okay,I understand the point of the traditionalist,however,this is the era of molecular gastronomy and edible menus.there are no inhibitions and no boundaries.I made Neuskie's bacon ice cream last week and served it with hot steamy apple-sausage dumplings and syrup!!!My grandmother would question with her mid-western tongue and tell me to take that garbage out of her kitchen then call me a doctor.The point here is to have fun and eat and drink what YOU like.
So,after my spiel,my favorite martini is a recent creation:
(I can't believe it's not a martini, martini)

1 shot Modern Spirits Truffle vodka
1 shot Kamora (coffee liqueur)
2 shots milk or cream
It has a wonderful truffle ending and is very smooth.....enjoy

Yes, but of course that is NOT a martini, it is far closer to being a white russian than a martini. Aside from using a martini glass how do you even consider this a martini?

You are right people should obviously drink and eat what they like, but there is no reason to usurp the name of another product to add an appeal to your. Sort of like the sparkling wine/champagne issue, except sub the type of alcohol for the territorial aspect.

The Your Pal Will Method:

Place two jiggers of Bombay in a shaker with 3 cubes of ice. Shake Vigorously for two seconds, strain into a double martini glass. Whisper the word "vermouth" across the top of the martini glass, add a twist. Consume.

seeing some recipes for dessert-in-a-martini-glass

(hey, has anybody invented the "trifletini" yet? the world is waiting ....)

and some recipes for a shot of neat gin served for some reason in a martini glass ....

not much in the way of martini recipes though.

the martini is an icon. the martini is the cocktail (no offense to old fashioneds, sidecars, etc.) maybe that's why all these nonmartini beverages are trying to horn in .... after all, you don't see similar approaches to the Cuba Libre - "pour rum into a tumbler, add ice, wave a bottle of Coca-Cola in that general direction ... substitute vodka for rum if you like"

not to be just crabby, here is my martini recipe:

3 parts gin
1 part vermouth
mix & chill any damn way you like
add one pimento-stuffed olive(or maybe two - see, I'm not uptight about this at all ....)
drink and repeat.

I don't much like martinis, but when I prepare them dry for someone, I do the vermouth-in-a-tumbler-of-ice, pour out the vermouth (and the amount of vermouth that sticks to the ice is just right), add the gin, shake, strain, serve method.

Personally, I don't understand all this extra-dry martini stuff where no vermouth is added at all. How is that a martini? That's gin in a martini glass.
Then again, I'm not a martini drinker, so maybe I'll never understand.

Side question: Does anyone know when abouts martini stopped meaning gin (or vodka) and vermouth and started meaning any cocktail served in a martini glass?

Hell, when did people start calling a cocktail glass a martini glass?

A martini is but one of many cocktails served in a cocktail glass.

gleam wrote:Hell, when did people start calling a cocktail glass a martini glass?

A martini is but one of many cocktails served in a cocktail glass.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong on this, that a martini glass is a specific type of cocktail glass, although, you're right, many different cocktails may be served in a martini cocktail glass.

christine wrote:What are your favorite martini recipes? Serious ones or fun ones...

Wikipedia listed an amusing name for my favorite Martini called the Alfred Hitchcock:

...five parts gin and "a quick glance at a bottle of vermouth."

I've been on a Hendrick's kick lately while Mrs. Greasy Spoon has been requesting Tanqueray 10 more and more...

~GS

This may have been linked elsewhere around here, but The New York Times conducted a tasting of 80 different gins for martinis. Plymouth, a personal favorite of mine, came out as the highest rated martini gin by the NYT's panel.

I was reading a book last year ("The Tender Bar" by JR Moehringer) where the author talks about how the house specialty at his local bar in his hometown was a gin martini with a splash of scotch thrown in.

As much as I'd love to call myself a purist, the addition of the scotch really does tend to fill out the body and cut some of the butteriness of the vermouth. I recommend both the book and the martini.

3 parts gin
1 part extra dry vermouth
splash scotch
happiness

Matt wrote:This may have been linked elsewhere around here, but The New York Times conducted a tasting of 80 different gins for martinis. Plymouth, a personal favorite of mine, came out as the highest rated martini gin by the NYT's panel.

The New York Times wrote:Each of us is partial to the classic martini made with gin, although Audrey was sensitive to the desires of her clientele.

"You have to revisit which generation is drinking the martini," she said. "We might be classicists, but is the newer generation?"

Still, after perhaps 8 or 10 martinis, Audrey fessed up, referring at one point to "a generation lobotomized by vodka."

Indeed, gin is more of a thinking person’s spirit.

Great comment. They were kind of all over the place in their preferences, though. I don't care for too much juniper in a martini, so I think I'd relegate some of their choices to gin-and-tonics.

I'm surprised to see that we don't seem to have dry-martini fans here. Except for YourPalWill, the traditionalists posting adhere to the "wet" three-to-one formula I prefer. The NYT panel deplored the straight-gin concept, tasting at five-to-one for the purposes of evaluating gin but recommending four-to-one.

Santonoc, I believe that a dash or splash of anything is a perfectly acceptable addition to a martini, and that's one of the places the art comes in. My favorite is orange bitters, as noted above, but I also enjoy Angostura, I have drunk the scotch variation with pleasure, too. (A mixture of gin and scotch, sans vermouth, is sometimes called a "Chicago martini.")

LAZ wrote:I like to taste the vermouth, so I prefer martinis on the wet side, even as much as three to one...

I'm with ya on the vermouth, if you want your gin straight up what's the point of ordering a martini?

After years of studious trial and error and controlling the different variables (freeze the gin or room temp/ vermouth - in and out, straight in the shaker, swirl and dump/crushed ice or cubes/Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater or Bombay/Noilly Prat or M&R/lemon twist or olive?) this is my current method:

-Shaker half full of crushed ice
-Chill martini glass with ice and cold water
-Good healthy pour of room temp Beefeater into the shaker until your hand says stop
-Let the gin rest
-Dump the ice water from the glass
-Add Martini & Rossi vermouth to taste to the glass, swirl to completely coat the surface
-Dump vermouth from glass and add to the gin in the shaker
-Spear your olives and add to the glass
-Only NOW give a good vigourous five shakes and pour

You've got to let the gin work on the ice for a while to melt it down a little - but not too long. For years I was keeping the gin in the freezer, but you'd need half a fifth to fill one martini glass because the damn ice wouldn't melt. It was ice cold and clear as glass, but that made one ferocious cocktail.

The art of the perfect straight up martini is to be able to finish the whole glass down to the dregs while it's still cold, cutting it with just the right amount of melt water makes it go down quicker. Warm London dry gin is not a pretty thing.

can we at least agree that its still a martini if its vodka and not gin?

i have a very soft spot in my heart for the dusty/dusky martini.

4oz of ketel one
about 6 drops of vermouth
and 6 drops of olive juice

shake on ice, pour, and enjoy.

seems i can drink these, and somehow forget to count how many i've had.

i have had a few gin martini's that i liked but for the most part can't get past the juniper.

not sure which of the gins is least airomatic(??)
but i just about lose my stomach from smelling a bottle of tanqeruay

Bulldog_Shotgun wrote:not sure which of the gins is least airomatic(??)
but i just about lose my stomach from smelling a bottle of tanqeruay

Tanqueray in a martini? No way, much too perfumy. That's for the frat boy gin & tonic crowd.

To my nose Beefeater is relatively subtle, the aromas don't overwhelm and it lets the vermouth share the stage. A lot of other gins are overpowering.

I heard a funny saying about martinis over the weekend that I thought readers of this thread might enjoy:

"When it comes to martinis, two is perfect. Three is not enough."

After many years of intensive research, I have found this to be absolutely true

Cheers,
Davooda

Akin to Dorothy Parker*....

I love a martini --
But two at the most.
Three, I'm under the table;
Four, I'm under the host.

As much as I like high-vermouth martinis, though, I've always loved this one:

A Drink with Something in It

There is something about a martini,
A tingle remarkably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth --
I think that perhaps it's the gin.


-- Ogden Nash

________
*I haven't located a definitive source for this; variant versions are all over the place -- this is what's quoted on the cocktail napkins at the Algonquin Hotel.

I was in a workshop the other day at 405 Church in Evanston, and there was a fella talking about how a martini with chocolate or any other flavor other than vodka was not a martini. It got me thinking about some of these threads...perhaps he was an LTH'er?

Pie Lady wrote:I was in a workshop the other day at 405 Church in Evanston, and there was a fella talking about how a martini with chocolate or any other flavor other than vodka was not a martini. It got me thinking about some of these threads...perhaps he was an LTH'er?

Gin is the traditional base spirit in a Martini, not vodka. But otherwise, yes, chocolate may lead to a great cocktail, but it wouldn't be a Martini.

Darren72 wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:I was in a workshop the other day at 405 Church in Evanston, and there was a fella talking about how a martini with chocolate or any other flavor other than vodka was not a martini. It got me thinking about some of these threads...perhaps he was an LTH'er?

Gin is the traditional base spirit in a Martini, not vodka. But otherwise, yes, chocolate may lead to a great cocktail, but it wouldn't be a Martini.

Exactly. No self-respecting LTHer would have called out the vodka martini as being the only right one.