Shaken, not Stirred

Actually, the gin is named for British stock brokers, and the bottle comes with a tiny bowler hat for a cap -- a cutesie embellishment that makes me suspect of what is beneath.

Just like that cute little black cat on the crappy wine bottle, and the little seal on old bottles of (Carstairs??).

BTW while in the south of France I had occasion to buy several bottles of gin, and was presented with the choice between things with names like, "Old Lady", "Colonel something or other", and such- all of them were delicious, aromatic, and smooth, British gins. They were also, If I remember correctly, of comparitively low proof, like 80. And, also, never never ever order a MARTINI in a bar or restaurant in France - they aint got a clue...

I lived in France on and off for some time, and I was rarely able to find anything above 80 proof. And it was always pricy by comparison to other things -- like wine. I think it was a French plot. If you couldn't get a good buzz off the juniper, you turned to the grape for solace. Old Lady Gin, albeit a curiously quaint reference to Queen Victoria, disn't quite make it for me.

As for Martinis in France, there is a Harry's Bar in Paris (no relation to the ones in Venice and New York) that is one of the few places that does not serve liquid popsicles. Even in London it's still tricky, and you should ask first. Some places will still give you a glass of straight vermouth. You may have to ask for a Gin 'n' It or a Gin and French.

quote:

Originally posted by seafarer john

And, also, never never ever order a MARTINI in a bar or restaurant in France - they aint got a clue...

We hosted an exchange student from Spain some years ago. When she became of age--surely somewhere in the world 18 had to have been legal!--we asked if she'd like a martini. She would indeed--and that's when we found out that to her, a martini was straight vermouth. Took her a little while to wheeze that out!

Martini of the future from The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Here's what the Encyclopaedia Galactica has to say about alcohol. It says that alcohol is a colourless volatile liquid formed by the fermentation of sugars and also notes its intoxicating effect on certain carbon-based life-forms.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

It says that the effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick.

The Guide also tells you on which planets the best Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are mixed, how much you can expect to pay for one and what voluntary organisations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards.

The Guide even tells you how you can mix one yourself.

Take the juice from one bottle of that Ol' Janx Spirit, it says.

Pour into it one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus V - Oh that Santraginean sea water, it says. Oh those Santraginean fish!!!

Allow three cubes of Arcturian Mega-gin to melt into the mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzine is lost).

Allow four litres of Fallian marsh gas to bubble through it, in memory of all those happy Hikers who have died of pleasure in the Marshes of Fallia.

Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint extract, redolent of all the heady odours of the Qualactin Zones, subtle, sweet and mystic.

Drop in the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger. Watch it dissolve, spreading the fires of the Algolian Suns deep into the heart of the drink.

Sprinkle Zamphour.

Add an olive.

Drink... but... very carefully...

Grampy, we make those up here in Alaska every day around 5PM, except we substitute the tooth of the Algolian Suntiger with a Polar Bear tooth.

quote:

Originally posted by lleechef

Grampy, we make those up here in Alaska every day around 5PM, except we substitute the tooth of the Algolian Suntiger with a Polar Bear tooth.

Still attached to the bear, no doubt.

The Sundancer is a simple man with just a simple Canadian Rye.

Happy Friday after five.

Paul e. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I agree with the Gentleman from Tennessee... Keep it simple but not transparent....
My recipe for success.
One 32 oz Kentucky Derby Cup
One Fifth of Maker's Mark
Enough ice to fill the balance of the space in the Bourbon-filled cup.
One D Q Milkshake straw..on the side (to be used when hand shakes to much to allow for comfortable sipping)

BTW Sundancer, Just got a note from Bill at Maker's Mark, They are dipping their large bottles for Christmas in both green and Red for the Holidays.Guess it's time to drop by the old 'still again.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick F.

quote:

Originally posted by lleechef

Grampy, we make those up here in Alaska every day around 5PM, except we substitute the tooth of the Algolian Suntiger with a Polar Bear tooth.

Still attached to the bear, no doubt.

of course! anything otherwise would be too tame.

hey, I just became a Double Cheeseburger. Wow. I feel honored. Or, maybe I need to get a job, a life, etc.......just kidding. I love bantering with you all about food and all the other ramifications!

AND........I became a Double Cheeseburger whilst sipping on a Wild Goose Martini......go figure.

Dammit, Lleechef, get with it! You were sipping on a "Wild Goose"- why not enter it and win the contest?

Sounds like a Wild Goose Chaste to me

quote:

Originally posted by Laughing Goddess

Well, we can't discuss martinis without a quote from the brilliant Dorothy Parker, now, can we?

"I'll drink one martini,
Two at the most --
After three I'm under the table,
After four I'm under the host."

(My apologies to Miss Parker if I didn't get the quote exactly right)

Gotta love that girl!!

Change the 1st line to "I like to have a Martini," drop the two "After" and change "the host" to my host" and you've got it. The poem and a Dorothy Parker Martini Glass offer can be found at http://www.librarygiftshop.com/dopamagl.html

Here's to Dorothy, Tom

quote:

Originally posted by seafarer john

Oldfrt: That thing your are drinking is NOT A MARTINI! It is some pretender hiding in a Martini glass. I would hope that the evil person who first poured vodka in a Martini glass and called it a Martini would be suffering the pangs of Hell by now. . . .

Cheers to All, John

Ah! A man after me own heart! A purist-without-apology!

I think it's just wonderful that people are willing to try new things but, in my view, the only variations that might be permissibly called a Martini should be limited to choice and proportion of gin and vermouth, olive or lemon or both, and [possibly] shaken or stirred -- and that's a degree of flexibility that I don't often display. I don't order a Martini in a restaurant unless I can instruct and observe a bartender who doesn't seem overly busy.

My perfect Martini (not to be confused with the so-called "Perfect Martini) requires Bombay and Noilly Prat in a 7/1 proportion, quickly and gently stirred in ice cubes (the stirring and the cubes so as not to end up with tiny chips of ice watering down the result in the glass), a very cold (preferably frozen) double-martini-glass of fine quality swiped with essence of the lemon peel (the thin yellow surace layer with the oily essence and without a trace of the bitter white),and a good quality olive(some, like non-virgin olive oils, can be bitter). A-a-a-h . . . a transluscent, ethereal nectar that is unmatchable.

A good wine may benefit from "a loaf of bread and thou" but a great Martini stands alone.

I haven't experimented with, or tried, much in the way of Martini-pretenders (a "Chocolate Martini" -- aigh! Gag me with a muddling pestle!) but,living as I do on west Caribbean island, I invented a gin concoction that I later discovered I only replicated. In my recipe, it has only a dash of blue Curacao instead of the vermouth, but elsewhere it's been called a "Blue Martini" and usually has a larger (sweeter - ugh!) proportion of Curacao. I call mine, variously, a "Blue Sky' or a "Blue Lagoon." However, I could never get used to "wasting" my good gin in it, so I now make it with decent vodka and serve it to others while I enjoy my Martini. -Tom

quote:

Originally posted by cunamara

A good wine may benefit from "a loaf of bread and thou" but a great Martini stands alone.

In vino veritas, sed in Martini felicitas. Or as Johnny Carson would say, "Happiness is a dry Martini."

As for all those fancy-schmancy recipes, I was approached some years ago to write the text for a small book on Martinis. I was told that a bar in Florida would give the recipes. To which I replied, "Recipes? There's more than one?"

Cunamara and Grampy: you are great Humanists, you are true representatives of the Drinking Class, you have impeccible taste,
you restore and refresh my faith in the limitless possibilities of a
perfect Martini !

Cheers, John

quote:

Originally posted by Grampy

quote:

Originally posted by cunamara

A good wine may benefit from "a loaf of bread and thou" but a great Martini stands alone.

In vino veritas, sed in Martini felicitas. Or as Johnny Carson would say, "Happiness is a dry Martini."

As for all those fancy-schmancy recipes, I was approached some years ago to write the text for a small book on Martinis. I was told that a bar in Florida would give the recipes. To which I replied, "Recipes? There's more than one?"

I agree..........in fact, I get quite nervous over ordering my martini when I see that the bar or restaurant "specializes" in them and offers you a menu with 20 unbelievable concoctions!

Second Worst Martini Story:

I won't mention the place because I asked for it. When Skyy vodka first came out some 10 or so years ago, I was curious about it being hangover proof. So I asked for it in a Martini. Have you ever wondered if distilled water might taste good because it sounds like it must be so pure? One sip and . . ."Please Put it on my tab and fix me a proper Martini."

Tom (enjoying one at the moment)

More in the vein of this "road food" Web site, does anyone know of, or (more sadly) remember, a small, hole-in-the-wall place in Manhatten called Castro's; it was recommended for their Martinis. I sought them out one time in the 80's and was immediately encouraged by the fact that they had eight(8!) double Martini glasses inverted in their ice bin unaccompanied by any other glasses.

My angle of sight putting me at a disadvantage, I couldn't see how they prepared it but it was on a par with the best Martini I've ever had, including anything I've ever mixed for myself. I had two before heading out for a place that had Sushi in those days. Sushi and Martinis are my idea of heaven. In fact, whenever I get back to the States, I have one friend that always joins me in that over-the-top pleasure.

Tom

OK, I'm a purist so you are warned.

A Martini is made with gin since it is the interaction of the juniper berries in the gin with the vermouth that makes it a cocktail. It has to have vermouth because otherwise you are just drinking straight gin and not a cocktail. The business of Winston Churchill merely bowing in the direction of France just demonstrates that he is another uncouth Limey probably related to the previously maligned secret agent (this is probably why the sun did set on the British Empire).

The so-called 'vodka martini' is popular because vodka is a neutral spirit (i.e. tasteless) and people who don't like to taste their liquor like it; real aficionados drink gin. According to Mr. Boston's, a cocktail of vodka and vermouth is called a 'Kangaroo'.

The cocktail imbibed by the previously maligned secret agent in Casino Royale is called a Vesper after the girl the secret agent falls in love with who turns out to be a double agent. A Vesper is a delicious drink but it ain't a Martini. I make my Vesper with Bombay Sapphire, Stolichnaya, and Lillet Blanc with a lemon twist. Some people use an orange twist because of its afinity with Lillet but that is too sweet for me.

Everything must be chilled; gin and cocktail glass in freezer, vermouth and Boston shaker in fridge. Stirred not shaken.

A Gibson should have two pearl onions because they represent the Gibson girl's breasts (OK, I'm not sure I believe this story). Olives are nice provided they are small and not stuffed although I prefer a twist.

There are plenty of good gins although I like either Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater's. Vermouth is usually Noilly Prat.

quote:

Originally posted by Rayme

OK, I'm a purist so you are warned.

Philistine though I may be, I would submit that this is the final word. I salute you, sir. (And see an earlier post of mine, and posts of others, on this thread re the Gibson. My wife prefers them. I vary. Either is lovely.)

I do truly love a drink that is horrendously misnamed: a "Key Lime Martini." I dare not ask the ingredients, but am sure they include v**** and assordid (spelling intentional) syrups; but if I don't think of them as Martinis--and I don't!--they make a lovely dessert.

Of course, there is a rare Fred Astaire song called the Martini. In it, he dictates to the bartender the most precise instructions for making a perfect dry Martini, including the glassware. It takes so long, that he looks at his watch and sees he's late. He finally says, "just pour me a water glass of gin."

By the way a Martini has been called "Fred Astaire in a glass."

quote:

Originally posted by Rayme


A Gibson should have two pearl onions because they represent the Gibson girl's breasts (OK, I'm not sure I believe this story).

The story I have on the origin of the Gibson had to do with a conservative, teetotaling member of Congress. Because the business of legislating is largely a matter of convivial smooching, often over drinks from lunch to late hours, this Senator solved his problem by secretively asking wait-staff to always bring him a martini glass with water in it whenever he'd order a Martini; he told them to add a cocktail onion instead of an olive so he'd be sure to get the right glass from a serving tray. Others, not realizing that Gibson was actually being served water, thought it just an interesting variation and started asking for a "Gibson, please."

If that story is true, the double onion version perhaps warrants a name like "Gibson Girl" or possibly a descriptive reference more sexistly perverse: a "Gibson, knockered please"(?).

Tom (Geez, it's not 5 yet?)

In another Roadfood.com forum, the merits of a corned beef hash with peanut butter sandwich is discussed. In similar outrageous vein, I ran across an extensive article on the "Pork Martini" at http://www.foody.org/home/martini.html

Tom (Hmm . . . stiil not 5)

Pork Martini -- I'll stick with Beefeater.

Lillet has been mentioned twice in this thread, I had noted it as an ingredient of a lot of old fashioned cocktails, but had never tried it.
So, i went out and purchased a bottle and took a sip - not bad, a nice aperatif, a little on the sweet side, but much nicer than sweet vermouth. My wife, who likes a Manhattan now and then, has taken to making her Manhattan with the Lillet - does a lot to improve a Manhattan , and they are much improved with Scotch - a Rob Roy.

That politician Gibson story was dismissed by the resident experts here a few weeks ago. The Gibson was named for that sniveling artist who drew the Gibson Girls -no two ways about it , so let's not hear any more apocrophal stories. And, anyway, why would we want such a delicious drink to have been named for a teetotaling conservative politico? BTW the above mentioned already have their drink ,The Presbyterian - although I have never been clear on just what the ingredients of the Presbyterian are. Any help out there?

quote:

Originally posted by seafarer john

Lillet has been mentioned twice in this thread, I had noted it as an ingredient of a lot of old fashioned cocktails, but had never tried it.
So, i went out and purchased a bottle and took a sip - not bad, a nice aperatif, a little on the sweet side, but much nicer than sweet vermouth. My wife, who likes a Manhattan now and then, has taken to making her Manhattan with the Lillet - does a lot to improve a Manhattan , and they are much improved with Scotch - a Rob Roy.

That politician Gibson story was dismissed by the resident experts here a few weeks ago. The Gibson was named for that sniveling artist who drew the Gibson Girls -no two ways about it , so let's not hear any more apocrophal stories. And, anyway, why would we want such a delicious drink to have been named for a teetotaling conservative politico? BTW the above mentioned already have their drink ,The Presbyterian - although I have never been clear on just what the ingredients of the Presbyterian are. Any help out there?

I think it is water from the baptismal font
Actually, I think this is the recipe:
1 oz. Bourbon
1/2 Lemon Lime Soda
1/2 Club Soda

but then again, I hear that some people make it with coke!

What a terrible thing to do to a nice Bourbon!