I love martinis but I really love dirty martinis. I something about the olive brine that makes a nice drink. While this is a simple recipe, bartenders around the world screw it up. Either the Dirty Martini has too much olive brine or it only has a splash. For the perfect Dirty you need to get the olive brine just right.The Perfect Dirty MartiniHere is a pic of the first Dirty Martini on my new bar.Mix the ingredients in a shaker and strain into a chilled martini glass. Yep that is it. The real secret is the amount of each ingredient.Extreme CloseupI made a few and I tried using Olive stuffed with jalapenos and garlic. Wow, it was a magnificent drink. The garlic and jalapenos really added to the olive brine. The flavors came through in the cocktail. I recommend trying olives stuffed with various other things besides pimentos. I bet a blue cheese stuffed olive would be amazing too.To make a traditional Gin Dirty Martini just substitute Gin for the vodka.— Rex
Dirty Martini
Perfect dirty martini with vodka, dry vermouth, and olive brine. Balance is key to this simple but elegant cocktail.
Pour vodka, dry vermouth, and olive brine into a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Shake well for about 10 seconds until chilled.
Strain into a chilled martini glass.
Garnish with 2 large olives on a pick or cocktail pick.
For gin version, substitute vodka with gin. For specialty olives (jalapeno & garlic, blue cheese stuffed), use those instead of plain olives.
Notes
The secret to a perfect dirty martini is balancing the olive brine with the other ingredients. Too much brine makes it too salty. Try specialty olives like jalapeno & garlic or blue cheese stuffed for unique flavor variations. Great as an aperitif.
Rex is an avid griller, barbecuer and bacon enthusiast. He is the Pitmaster for the Rex BBQ competition team. Rex was also featured on the TV show American Grilled. If you have any questions or wish to have Rex decode your favorite dish, click on the ASK REX link in the menu above.
Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing I’m Just Here For MORE FOOD by Alton Brown. As an engineer and a certified nerd, I love Alton Brown. His show is designed around humor and the basics, that make food what…
I was searching through this months Food and Wine and discovered a little drink that looked amazing. The drink was originally called Ramoncita Lopez Special, the name was too long. As a bartender, anything with more than two words in the name is overkill. Further, the drink tastes like a key lime pie. No shit,…
When I was in college there was this pizzaria that delivered the beautiful cheese filled breadsticks. They were awesome. Basically a mix between a mozzarella stick and a breadstick. This recipe, however simple, took a couple of tries as I needed to get the right cheese. After having the right cheese, it took a while…
Dana and I really love the sweet potato casserole from Ruth’s Chris. So we scoured around to find a recipe that was similar. We settled on a recipe, but it was way too sweet. It was actually Tooth-aching sweet! The sweet potatoes multiplied by the candied pecan top, was similar to the taste of the…
Ever since my BreakFast Fatty post, I have been getting bombarded with emails requesting more bacon recipes. So I took the bacon weave from the breakfast fatty, cooked it like my bacon crusted quiche and mixed it with America’s Favorite Dish, PIZZA! Yep, I took this pizza to the carbohydrate free extreme (ok a few…
Mmmm….may be the perfect thing for my snow day today! 🙂
You have a snow day? I am so jealous. I wish it would snow here in DC so that I could have a snow day.