The gin martini is my favorite cocktail. Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray, or Hendricks are the different gins I like to use. The best dry vermouth is Noilly Prat or Martini and Rossi.
To make a martini I line a glass with Noily Prat vermouth and pop it in the freezer. Then at cocktail hour I'll fill another martini glass with Bombay Sapphire gin which will then be dumped into the shaker. I'll add a drop of vermouth (I like 'em dry) and shake the whole thing up. I've heard a martini is better when shaken in waltz time. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, etc... Once properly shaken I'll pour it into the frozen vermouth lined martini glass. Cold is so very key. I keep the gin in the freezer even though I've been told it is not good for the gin. I love getting ice crystals floating at the top of the drink.
Does anyone know when exactly the first martini appeared? Probably not but there are a few interesting stories floating around out there. Some say a 'professor' named Jerry Thomas came up with the first one in San Francisco around 1850. According to the story, a miner headed to Martinez, California stopped by Thomas's establishment and requested something new and different. What he got was a 'Martinez', the precursor to the Martini.
Professor Thomas's 1887 edition of The Bartender's Guide included this recipe:
Professor Jerry Thomas's Martinez
Use small bar glasses
One dash bitters
Two dashes maraschino
One wine glass vermouth (sweet vermouth)
Two small lumps of ice
One pony (one ounce) Old Tom Gin
Shake up thoroughly and strain into a large 'cocktail' glass [then shaped more like a wine glass].
Put a quarter of a slice of lemon in the glass and serve.
If the guest prefers it very sweet, add two dashes of gum syrup
-from The Little Black Book of Martinis
"I'd like a dry martini, Mr. Quoc, a very dry martini. A very dry, arid, barren desiccated, veritable dustbowl of a martini. I want a martini that could be declared a disaster area. Mix me just such a martini."
