Dirty Martini
A Martini with olive brine: cloudy, saline and savoury — the least austere version of the most austere cocktail.
The Dirty Martini’s ancestor is a 1901 Martini with muddled olives, credited to the New York bartender John E. O’Connor and recorded as the Perfect, à la Hyland. The brine itself is a later step: the first printed recipe using olive brine appears in 1930, in G.H. Steele’s My New Cocktail Book, as a Martini with a small measure of the liquid from the olive jar. It stayed a curiosity for decades and came back with the Martini revival of the 1990s, when brine quality became something bars argued about.
- The 1990s and 2000s revival made it a standard order again, and “extra dirty” became a menu option in its own right.
- Extra dirty
- Filthy Martini
- Gibson (cocktail onion, no brine)
“The brine is salty enough that many bars drop the vermouth entirely rather than double the salt.”
Ingredients
- Gin60 ml
- Dry vermouth10 ml
- Olive brine15 ml
- Green olives2–3, to garnish
Method
Stir the gin, vermouth and brine with ice, strain into a chilled glass and garnish with olives.
Martini glass · no ice · olives