{"id":1160,"date":"2021-02-19T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T23:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2021-02-19T19:25:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T03:25:05","slug":"make-way-for-the-martinez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cuisinestupide.com\/?p=1160","title":{"rendered":"Make way for the Martinez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Martini has been my favorite cocktail for decades. So it’s a little weird that until now I’d never tasted, much less made, the Martini’s close relative: the Martinez.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not that weird. Although often listed among the basic mixed drinks everyone should know<\/a>, the Martinez gets passed up by many cocktail authorities. It’s not even mentioned in Jeffrey Mogenthaler’s epic The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique<\/em><\/a>. And Michael Brunelle’s essential alphabetical recipe book Cocktails<\/em><\/a> zips straight from “Margarita” to “Martini” to “Maverick” without so much as a glance over its shoulder.<\/p>\n

What I knew of the Martinez up til now was mainly that it could be described as a “sweet Martini”\u2014which isn’t inaccurate but doesn’t really do justice to the depth and complexity of the drink, which I think rivals that of most dry Martinis. But there’s no doubt that, in one respect, the Martinez is as old-fashioned as an Old Fashioned<\/a>; it definitely hails from the Victorian era of mixed-drink construction, when almost every concoction contained a sugar cube, a sweet liqueur, or both.<\/p>\n

Then there is the question of the actual familial relationship between the Martinez and the Martini. The former is generally credited to Jerry Thomas, the first modern mixologist, who included the Martinez in his (posthumously published) 1887 book How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks <\/em>(reprinted as The Classic Guide to Cocktails<\/em><\/a>). But the mid-19th century saw a flurry of new gin cocktails, as first Italian (sweet) vermouth, then French (dry) vermouth, found their way into the pitchers and shakers of the day. And as Gary Regan points out in The Joy of Mixology<\/em><\/a>, some Martini recipes of that vintage call for exactly the same ingredients as the Martinez, creating a whole chicken-and-egg problem that probably never will be reconciled.<\/p>\n

Regardless, that first Martinez called for a 2-to-1 ratio of sweet vermouth to gin; most modern versions reverse that. I split the difference and go for a 1-to-1 ratio of vermouth to gin. A few recent interpretations sub in various amounts of dry vermouth; go far enough down that road, though, and you’ll end up right back in Martini Town.<\/p>\n

Oh, about the gin: It must be Old Tom, not London Dry or any other type, for a real Martinez. Itself a throwback to the dawn of distilling, barley-based Old Tom hadn’t been produced in the United States since Prohibition until an Oregon outfit, Ransom<\/a>, began making it a few years back, to widespread acclaim. Its malty, smoky overtones give the Martinez a unique character\u2014one that, admittedly, was not universally popular here at Chateau Cuisine Stupide. This longtime Martini drinker, however, is happy to welcome the Martinez to the family.<\/p>\n

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Martinez<\/h3>\n

Adapted from Michael Dietsch, Serious Eats<\/a><\/p>\n