A proper martini: An endangered species

Sniff out the last of the summer with a classic cocktail
Over the next few months we will bring you recipes for cocktails which reflect the seasons, some classics and some new creations, but all easy to make and all entirely delicious.

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A proper martini recipe

It has become an all too regular little playlet performed in the bars and restaurants of London.

BARTENDER: What can I get you?

ME: Martini please

BARTENDER: Gin or vodka?

ME: Goodbye.

The proper Martini has become an endangered species, on the one hand threatened by young bartenders, who believe that filling a glass with as many berries as possible and then adding "tini" on the end of the cocktail's name makes the slop they serve a Martini, it doesn't.

On the other hand and even worse is the curse of vodka. If you want to make a drink with vodka and vermouth, knock yourself out, but please don't call it a Martini, it isn't and never will be. No matter how many times you see James Bond order one and no matter how many recipes you see in magazines telling you to reach for the bottle of Stoli. Even top chefs don't have a clue. In a recent feature in The Evening Standard's ES Magazine, Tom Aikens extolled the virtues of this most classic of cocktails before announcing that his favourite spirit was Ketel One vodka. God give me strength.

My life is a shallow search for the perfect martini and I like mine cold, brutal and naked. I still hold with the first piece of advice given to me at The American Bar at The Savoy Hotel when I asked how much vermouth I should add to my drink and the bartender replied "sir, it is enough that the man delivering the gin once had a mother who drank vermouth".

The classic however is a little more of a compromise.

Ingredients
Four 25ml measures of good gin (Beefeater or Plymouth are my preferences)
One 25ml measure of dry vermouth (Noilly Pratt)
1 inch strip of peel from an un-waxed lemon.

Method
Pre-chill your shaker and glass
When cold, add ice to the shaker and measure in the required amounts of gin and vermouth. Shake or stir as required. I prefer stirring as shaking can lead to shards of ice making its way into the final drink.
Strain into your chilled glass and twist the lemon peel until it leaves a spritz of lemon oil on the surface of the cocktail.
Serve holding by the stem.

If you really have to, use an olive instead of a twist. People will laugh at you, but at least you wont be drinking vodka.