Life Is Meals_ A Food Lover's Book of Days - James Salter [69]
This refers to gin martinis, of course. There are other kinds, some very creative, but all lesser. It cannot be said that the following instructions produce the greatest martini of all time, but you may very well come to believe they do.
First, use a good English gin—Beefeater or Tanqueray both ninety-four proof, are preferred. The dry vermouth should be Noilly Prat or Martini & Rossi, although you can have decent results with Tribuno or Stock. Vermouth is a fortified white wine that is about eighteen percent alcohol and once opened will go bad unless refrigerated. Even then it does not last indefinitely, so it is best to buy small bottles.
In a pitcher or shaker put about six or eight cubes of hard ice cracked by hand (place the cube in the palm of your hand and hit it smartly with a heavy spoon). It is important that the ice be cracked so as to present the maximum cold surface to the gin and vermouth—a martini is and should be a slightly diluted drink.
Pour one or one and a half small capfuls of vermouth over the ice. Add enough gin to fill, or nearly fill, the martini glass. Experience will teach the amount, but about five ounces. Stir or shake until the contents are very cold. A martini that is not absolutely icy is a failure. (The glasses can be placed in the freezer beforehand, but this is not essential.)
Pour the drink, without any ice, into the glasses. It should fill it almost to the brim. Add an olive—single, green, unflavored, and pitted—or a twist of lemon peel—about an inch and a half long, deftly pinched with the fingers to spray a bit of oily essence—or a single cocktail onion (making the drink technically a Gibson). The matter of the olive or onion is important since the flavor is imparted to the drink. I prefer B&G cocktail onions and add a few drops of their liquid to the unstirred drink.
A martini is a made-by-hand creation, and it is best to make no more than two at a time. It’s also best to drink only one, or things become blurred. As James Thurber commented, “One is all right, two is too many, and three is not enough.” With the first sip, the drink’s perfume and strong, clean taste give an extraordinary sense of well-being that lasts for an hour or more.
Do not make martinis ahead of time. The remarkable freshness will not be there. In DeVoto’s words, “You can no more keep a martini in the refrigerator than you can keep a kiss there.”
There is a final, unconventional secret. Shake a Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce bottle, then quickly remove the cap and with it, dash a faint smudge of the contents—far less than a drop—into the bottom of the shaker before beginning. It adds the faint, unidentifiable touch of greatness.
J.S.
GREEK BOYFRIEND
Summer night. Cold tomato soup, fresh corn, and steak salad. Talking about a good-looking woman we know who had more or less broken up with a Greek boyfriend but still visits him in the little Peloponnese town where he has a house and invites her, saying there will be wonderful days and no sex: “Only if absolutely necessary.”
ICE-CREAM TYPES
Ice cream is made of milk, cream, egg yolks, and flavoring. Its high fat content is what makes it smooth and rich-tasting. The incorporation of air as it is churned is what keeps it from turning into a frozen block, but the amount of air is limited by law. Italian ice cream—gelato—has less air and so is a bit denser than either American ice cream or French glace. It is smooth and not oversweet.
Iced milk is essentially a sorbet to which milk has been added. It has less fat and more air, which gives it a lighter texture than ice cream, and it often has more sugar. It was first made in Arabia, where it was called sharbah, the origin of