Mix a fantastic cocktail at home with our recipe for a classic, dry martini.
A martini is sophisticated, elegant and suitable for any evening occasion (or even a relaxed afternoon!). Typically made from gin and dry vermouth, it has a botanical flavour from the gin, with a hint of herbal bitterness from the vermouth.
There’s a lot of disagreement on the best way to make one (shaken or stirred?) but our recipe is a great, reliable method to capture that martini elegance at home - however you like to customise it.
With such a straight-forward cocktail, there’s nowhere to hide, so it’s essential to use high quality alcohol. Try Filey’s signature gin - hand crafted in Yorkshire.
To Make a Dry Martini
The real trick to making the perfect dry martini is the temperature. You need the drink to get as cold as possible, and to be served in an ice cold glass, to get the true dry martini experience.
Cocktail Ingredients
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2 ½ ounces of high quality gin, like Filey’s signature gin
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½ ounce dry vermouth
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Ice
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Garnish as preferred (such as olives or a lemon twist)
Equipment
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Martini glass
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Mixing glass (or a cocktail shaker for a shaken martini)
Recipe for a Dry Martini
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Put you martini glass in the freezer to ensure it’s ice cold when you’re ready to serve
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Pour your gin and vermouth into your mixing glass
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Add ice and stir for at least 30 seconds until the mixture is cooled
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Strain the drink to remove the ice and pour into your cold martini glass
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Add your garnish as preferred. For example, you can pare a lemon peel, pinch it to release the oils and rub the peel around the rim of the glass before finally dropping it in.
Alternatively for a shaken gin martini:
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Put you martini glass in the freezer to ensure it’s ice-cold when you’re ready to serve
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Pour your gin and vermouth into your cocktail shaker
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Add ice and shake vigorously for at least 10 seconds so the alcohol is mixed and the drink is cooled
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Strain the drink and pour into your chilled martini glass. If you want to completely remove the ice, you’ll need to use a fine mesh strainer as the ice will have broken during shaking
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Add your garnish as preferred. For example, spear your olives using a cocktail stick and add into the drink.
How to Customise your Dry Martini
It’s rare to find two people that like their martini the same, so there are a few ways to customise your drink.
Shaken or Stirred?
A classic martini is stirred rather than shaken - this is the general rule for any cocktail that only contains alcohol. It’s typically preferred as it helps maintain the rich and complex flavours of the gin. Shaking can ‘bruise’ the gin - losing some of the botanical taste.
However, shaking a gin martini helps get the drink even colder. This is why some people prefer it shaken.
Gin to Vermouth Ratio
Our recipe uses a 5:1 ratio of gin to vermouth. However, you might prefer a little more vermouth to gin. Why not experiment to see what you like best?
Adding Bitters
A classic dry martini does not use bitters - including them makes the drink less ‘dry’ as the proportion of high-proof spirit (gin) decreases. However, the martini is a drink that’s been around for over a century. At various times, it’s certainly been popular to add orange bitters to highlight the citrus flavours of the gin and vermouth. If you like to add a little citrus zing to your martini, just add a dash of orange bitters.
Food Pairings for a Dry Martini
The savoury, dry flavours of a martini mean it pairs well with both savoury food (as a complement) and, perhaps surprisingly, sweet dishes (as a contrast).
Savoury Food Pairings for a Martini
Martini is a great ‘cocktail hour’ drink, so is usually best served with appetisers or hors d'oeuvres.
Seafood makes a fantastic pairing for a martini. The salty flavours of the seafood have a similar complementary flavour as olives. Smoked mussels and clams, for example, are particularly good. Crab cakes can make an excellent starter.
A charcuterie board would be fantastic to pair with a martini, particularly where there are a lot of salty flavours. For example, smoked meats such as salami, a variety of cheeses, deviled eggs and, of course, olives.
Sweet Food Pairings for Martini
A martini would rarely be served with sweet food at events. However, when you’re making a martini at home, you can explore the, perhaps surprising, complementary sweet foods that pair well with this savoury cocktail.
Dark chocolate can make an interesting pairing with martini. The bitter notes of the dark chocolate, contrasted with the sweetness, can be a pleasant contrast with the dry martini.
Mini deserts are often a fantastic choice of sweet food to go with a martini. Bite-sized treats like mini brownies, lemon bars or truffles mean you can hold your glass in one hand and pop a delicious, contrasting sweet bite into your mouth with the other!
However you like to customise your dry martini, this is a reliable recipe for a refreshing classic. Ready if you want to stir-up some elegance any evening.
