Hello, and happy hate week! I don’t have much hate to discuss this morning. Probably because it’s Friday, and who hates Fridays? Anyway, I’m back with another martini this week. After getting The Martini cocktail book, I’ve been on a bit of a kick lately. Not gonna lie, I kinda feel like I’m making up for missing out on having them for so long.
Now what caught my eye was a recipe for a martini that was a favorite of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Being the history nerd that I am, I immediately went to the bar to go make this one. With some trepidation, I braced myself for the proportions: 5 oz. of gin to a measly 1/3 oz. vermouth. Between this, Oppenheimer’s martini, and Chester Nimitz’s old fashioned, its a minor miracle anything got done for the military during the war while important figures were drinking these insane drinks. According to the author of the book Matt Hranek, the rationale for the proportions here is supposedly “Montgomery preferred the gin to outnumber the vermouth in his martini in about the same ratio as he liked to face his opponents in battle – fifteen to one”:
Montgomery’s Martini
5 ounces (150 ml) London dry gin
1/3 oz. (10 ml) dry vermouth such as Noilly Prat extra dry
Dash of orange bitters
Strip of lemon peel for garnish
Combine the gin, vermouth, and bitters in a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir well, then strain into a glass of your choice and serve straight up. (Alternatively, strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.) Garnish with the lemon peel
Very citrusy up front. I would have expected the floral gin notes to reign supreme here but the lemon peel and the orange bitters lead the charge (no pun intended). Going back in for a sniff the second or third time though, I get much more of the gin. It could be that I’m subconsciously looking for it, or I quickly went noseblind to the lemon and bitters.
Holy damn this is strong. To be fair, I did expect that with 5 ounces of gin to 10 MLs of vermouth. As strong as the gin is in this, I do get a surprising amount of the vermouth flavors, which is quite impressive. It’s able to fight its way through the herbal and juniper flavors of the gin to get you that signature dryness one would expect to find in a cold, clear martini such as this. I was mildly concerned that I wouldn’t have any in here and it would just be a cold glass of gin with hints of lemon. I’m happy proven wrong here. The vermouth does linger a bit on the palate after you’ve finished sipping. I think it’s a bit much, but it does go away quickly at least. so there is that.
Now would I do this again? That is a very good question. On the surface, probably not. I’ve had a few different variations of martini recently, and, despite the fact I do enjoy a strong drink, this may be too much. However, if I had a bad enough day at work (like invading Belgium Holland from the air), then I could be talked into having one of these to calm the nerves.
(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)
Man I hope with all the craziness that Hunter Biden got up to I hope he didn’t end up with Hogwarts.
EARTHQUAKE!
YES INDEEDY! That’ll shake off all the excess water here!
I’m ordering a pizza.
Do natural processes count toward Shame Pizza?
WHO CARES
Shake it off
it’s in REVELATIONS,.(imaginary) PEOPLE!!!
Wooohoo! I’m still in PA. No earthquakes here, but the penguins at the Pittsburgh zoo picked the Niners to win the Owl.
60 degrees in early February. Climate change is a hoax.
73 in Cakalaky tomorry. DRILL BABY DRILL!!!
I love a lemon rind garnish in a martini, although I normally do angostura instead of orange bitters. Usually rim the glass with the lemon rind to make sure get them citrus oils in every sip
Monty’s Martini is great during a big game!
file:///C:/Users/spam5/OneDrive/Pictures/IMG_0632.JPG
That looks like a museum display
It looks pretty good! There’s a whole modeling/diorama genre where they make the vehicles all rusted out and old, and some of them are awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcozZ0rOSxc
Here’s a self-portrait (.png file) from my PostImage archive.
That’s my 1972 Polaroid SX-70 shooting outstanding modern-manufactured Impossible film, which just developed perfectly, as you can plainly see.
Good times. Let’s all get a Martini and toast Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.
Hmmm. A republicon government official using the exoneration of a Democratic candidate for POTUS as an excuse to shit talk them to the press.
Seems rather familiar, doesn’t it?
Also, this seems like the exact recipe for a martini that my grandmother would have made, and she recently passed at 99.
Of course it’s also the same recipe my grandfather would have made, and he barely made it to 70.
My ancestry, like Nigeria, is a land of contrasts.
Look, I’ll vote for a corpse instead of Trump come November, (and the way things are going I apparently may have to), but sending the equivalent this guy out to defend Biden’s memory is really not a great look.
Did this drink seem strange to you?
Well done
oh, you don’t owe me anything….
Kinda along the lines of “Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?”
Speaking of martinis, it’s been interesting to see Rudy Giuliani turn into a figurative ghost following that huge judgment against him and his subsequent declaration of bankruptcy. I wonder if he’s been drinking Montys to the point that he’s on the verge of becoming a literal ghost.
I had always read that Monty was a non drinker. Internet search said he did drink and smoke until 1939 when while recovering from illness suffered in Palestine, he gave it up for the rest of his life.
So he found Allah?
The ol’ Cat Stevens move!
He must’ve become A SECRET MUZLUM – just like O’Bummer!!!!!
I’ve always used PostImage to post photographs here. Now anything I upload gets automatically converted to “.avif” format, which doesn’t post properly on DFO at this time.
I am a very visual guy and this is causing me much sadness. I can’t add new photos.
I have huge archive, but that means I also can’t post anything new originals.
Is there a possible solution here?
Thats odd. I used postimage last night and it worked fine..
https://i.postimg.cc/0ykhCH7p/arizona.avif
See? If it’s an “.avif” file (which all new uploads now automatically convert to, which is new) they post as links here instead of images. My older uploads on PostImage (which I have hundreds of) post as “.jpg” or “.png” and the image shows fine here. Always watch your file formats, folks.
This was defaulted to .jpg from the direct link option
Upload a new image and post it. Let’s see what happens.
.png format
Well fuck me, I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe I should pop some more opiates and wash them down with Old Spice and see if that improves anything.
Try smacking it with a hammer!
Let’s invade Belgium from the air. Fuck those Belsh!
https://youtu.be/eaLLRIvWz4M?si=fC2ZeazypO7wLGFm&t=40
This is one of my favorite Monty Python bits. In fact, whenever I hear “Belgians” I think of this.
I steal, “I can’t think of anything more derogatory than x” a lot.
“Let’s not call them anything, let’s ignore them”
“Plus, they share a border with the Dutch.” -Nigel Powers, International Man of Mystery (former)
Aw, c’mon. Don’t be mean to The Hobbits of Europe.
I always figure that these mixes get done due to being at war, with things not being available, and using what’s on hand and then actually liking the drink. I don’t know enough about gin and vermouth to know why one was plentiful and the other not.
Getting my nerd on – the ‘Bridge too far’ is in Arnhem, in Holland.
Getting my next-level nerd on – Storm Over Arnhem is a wargame based on the paratrooper drop on Arnhem. The paratroopers are going to get wiped out, but the victory condition is based on how long you can stay alive. I have a copy, but this is not mine.
Well fuck me. Fixed.
That bar was set at 4 days for a bridge and 10 days for a bridgehead. Good luck.