Filthy Martini Recipe
Email
One of the most famous cocktails around, the martini has countless variations. Some are abominations (the chocolate martini) while others are a lifestyle choice (the dirty martini). This take on the vodka dirty martini replaces the traditional olive elements with a caperberry and its brine. Try it at your next cocktail party or anytime you’re feeling filthy.
What to buy: Don’t confuse capers and caperberries. Capers are the size of peppercorns and can be sold packed in a vinegar brine or in salt; caperberries look like small green olives with a stem attached and are sold packed in a vinegar brine.
This recipe was featured as part of our Valentine’s Day menu.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 ounces vodka
- 1 ounce caperberry brine
- 1/2 ounce dry vermouth
- Ice
- 1 caperberry, for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- Combine vodka, brine, and vermouth in a cocktail shaker. Top with ice and stir until chilled through, about 30 stirs. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a caperberry, and serve.
cemott3rd is spot on. Not a martini without gin. Make this with gin, keep the caperberry, drop the brine (or keep it). Stir, don't shake. Maybe add a dash of orange bitters if you're feeling naughty.
Cheers.
...with your TV dinner hahahhahahahahahaha!
Martinis were originally called a Martinez and was a drink made from 1 part gin to 2 parts SWEET vermouth. A "martini" made with vodka is no such thing as it is a KANGAROO by name, caperberry or not. Apple, chocolate and all the rest certainly are not Martinis, but interesting cocktails for those who also think an Entree is a main course (entree means 'to enter' in French and hence is the FIRST course of the meal!). BTW the long stemmed conical glass refered to as a martini glass is in actuality a cocktail glass. ;-p
Olives can and are quite often retreved by a spoon, and if you are worried about 'gross' things remember that the salads and desserts are uncooked and handled by many fingers....best to stay home and hide.
That sounds great.
Sometimes I put a few capers in my martini.
Much of our society's issues with illness arises from too many antibacterial soaps and O.C.D.-based cleanliness routines. I applaud G rote and Paula T for their comments.
I also have experienced the olive jar first-hand (pardon the pun), as a bartender, and although there certainly are people who dunk their grubby hands in for an olive theft, I have never observed anyone become sick from eating an olive from that jar. Also, the bar where I worked had a separate container of olive brine for adding to bloody marys and martinis as flavoring. Following such a practice minimizes contamination issues further.
I make my Dirty Martinis the regular, mainstream, modern way (vodka + olive juice to taste. garnish with an olive and pearl onion) but the Filthy Martinis... oh, well they need something special, so i do:
2 Gin
1/2 anchovy-stuffed olive juice
rinse glass with dry vermouth
garnish with 2 or 3 anchovy-stuffed olives.
can also be made with vodka. either way it's flithy and delicious!
I have a friend who will love this.
I adore vodka (belvedere or ketel one) and gin (hendricks, plymouth or plain old tanqueray) equally but this drink just begs for vodka.
Trying these at tomorrow's cocktail hour for sure.
Not too worried about food handling and strong drinks - acid tends to limit bacteria growth to benign ones, salt brine restricts it further and alcohol tends to do it in even more. There was an awful study done on lemon slices in soft drinks an water which claimed they found E. coli - I have tried to reproduce the problem in my lab with no luck. I tend to be cautious about food handling, but when I go out I don't really care-I am out and if something happens it does. And I love vodka based martinis- apple particularly- gin doesn't do it for me.
Lemons, olives, the lemon prevents scurvy and the alcohol kills the bacteria.
Nice save was going to try one tonight with Caper brine that did sound odd...
dc
Dev, you're going to be eating at home quite a bit.
Those garnish trays are filthy by the end of the night. I've seen not only server hands, but customers stick their fingers in to grab "a snack", a la Pretty Woman.
"I would never drink a dirty martini at a restaurant because often the olive juice used to make the martini "dirty" comes from the oilve container behind the bar where countless fingers have have been dipped to retrieve olives. Gross!"
I would never eat there again.
Standard practice is to use a cocktail pick, and any properly trained bar staff knows that.
I accidentally created a Flthy Martini for my ladyfriend about four years ago when I ran out of ice between making mine gin and hers vodka. Eventually, the Filthy evolved into about 2 tablespoons of gin added to vermouth and vodka, garnished with a blue-cheese stuffed olive or lemon twist. Sort of a reverse Vesper, as I would later discover. For a time, you could order these at several local bars in Park Slope Brooklyn until she finally converted over to gin. I guess another appropriate name might be the Training Wheel.
"I've never tried to make it with a caperberry, though."
If you're trying to make it with a caperberry, you've had waay too many martinis. (ha)
For the relative importance of gin & vermouth, google Ogden Nash and martini to read his wonderful poetic ode to the beverage. And as Thurber said, "One martini is alright. Two is too many. Three isn't enough."
I second Chinon's concerns about a dirty martini in a restaurant. Bars, even in the best establishments, are far from sanitary places. Check out this video--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IinX9o...
a martini made with vodka is not an "abomination"...it is simply not a "martini"...martini has lost its original meaning and is now functionally defined as "a cocktail served in a traditional martini glass". Perhaps like with Libertarians (I'm not one) vs. libertarians (I am one) in print we ought to use capitol M Martini to mean the real gin / vermouth concoction as originally intended.
Having said all that...while I do know better, I will still order my drink of choice as a Dirty Stoli martini, extra cold extra dirty up.
oh...and if you are frightened by what might be in the olive bin @ restaurants, you'd really be taken aback by what happens in most restaurant kitchens. Dining and drinking out is a matter of mind over matter.
I would never drink a dirty martini at a restaurant because often the olive juice used to make the martini "dirty" comes from the oilve container behind the bar where countless fingers have have been dipped to retrieve olives. Gross!
There are those of us who are glad that "martinis" have come to be made with vodka as well, because when it comes down to it gin tastes like pine needle juice and I'd only drink it on a dare.
I've never tried to make it with a caperberry, though.
Spiritchaser: Technically, "anything but gin and vermouth in a glass" would have been a better way to phrase it ;)
Winston Churchill aside, classic martinis had a *lot* more vermouth than the modern ones.
My GF gave me a jar of caperberries for Christmas ('cause I love those things) and I have a bottle of ice cold Stoli Elite sitting in the freezer, guess I know what I'll be drinking tonight. BTW - I am usually a dirty martini drinker and I too cringe when anythin but gin in a glass is referred to as a Martini but I'll just call this something else in my mind and drive on...
pinotboy: we hear you as we too usually prefer gin martinis. however, after trying the cocktail both ways, we realized that the juniper flavor of the gin overwhelmed the caperberries and that this drink is much better with vodka. so, abomination or not, we hope you try it because it's mighty tasty.
Some would say that any martini made with vodka is an abomination.