Yahoo Lifestyle How to Make an Olive Oil Martini, the Gin Classic Shot Through With the Flavor of Olives
“HOLY F***. This is next level. 800x better than before.”
The above, quoted verbatim from my personal notes (minus the asterisks, of course), were my first written thoughts upon trying a proper Olive Oil-Washed Martini.
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Last year, I was brainstorming ideas for a cocktail menu with a friend and consulting partner, when he asked me if I’d ever tried making a Martini with an olive oil-washed gin.
I said yes, I had. I work and live in the cocktail world, after all, and savory Martinis have been so hot for so long that they practically glow. For years now, bartenders are and have been making Martinis with everything from tomato water to mushrooms to anchovies to caviar, and at this point it’s a bit of a challenge to find an ingredient that hasn’t been transmogrified into a Martini in some shape or form—and of these, olive oil-washed Martinis were among the first.
As a refresher, to “fat wash” a spirit is when you combine a rendered, liquid fat with a spirit, and let the flavors infuse. You then put it in the freezer; everything that isn’t alcohol (the fat) will freeze, making it trivially easy to filter out, and leaving you with an essentially fat-free spirit that has been imbued with the flavor of whatever you were trying to capture. The technique was pioneered in 2007 with bourbon and bacon, and you can do it with any fat—sesame oil or peanut butter or A5 Wagyu, or, in this case, extra virgin olive oil. A Martini with olive oil is just a quick mental hop from a Martini with olive brine (a.k.a. the enduringly popular Dirty Martini) which is why people have been making and writing about Olive Oil Martinis for at least 10 years. Once a cocktail trend hits Better Homes & Gardens, it’s safe to say that it has “arrived.”
My problem is that I didn’t like it. At all. I had tried a couple at bars and had made a couple in my kitchen, and I thought they were all pretty bad. This actually isn’t terribly uncommon—bartenders are novelty-seeking by design, and the drinks press always needs something new to write about, so I am unsurprised when the “new hot thing” in cocktails turns out to be pretty underwhelming. I had concluded it was all much ado about nothing, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear someone whose palate I trust insisting that they are amazing.
I’ll save you the back and forth, but after a bit of it we realized that there is one factor in oil-washed spirits that’s rarely mentioned but absolutely critical: The quality of the Olive Oil. Many in this country (including, once, me) think of olive oil as neutral and for cooking, but that’s just because they haven’t tasted it fresh. Fresh olive oil is explosively flavorful, teeming with character, grassy and full with a peppery burn in the back of the throat. It also oxidizes relatively quickly. Gin washed with old olive oil tastes and smells terrible—like what I imagine the soiled uniform bin at a McDonalds to have the odor of—but if you use bright, fresh, artisanal olive oil—the kind with a harvest date on the bottle, and that tickles the back of your throat when you try it—it’s outstanding, rich and bright and insanely evocative. Because of alcohol’s inherent volatility, it actually smells more like olive oil than olive oil. It’s incredible.
Ingredient quality isn’t always this important. Bacon-washed bourbon tastes better if you use great bacon, but you can still do it with grocery store brands and it’ll be fine. Not so here. Use the best extra virgin olive oil you can find, or don’t make it at all. Then infuse it according to the instructions below and have fun. You can certainly make a standard Martini with it (gin and dry vermouth), but I think it really shines with a touch more richness and spice from Cocchi Americano, with the olive essence complemented with a light touch of sherry. Either way, all it takes is one sip to fully and immediately understand why Olive Oil Martinis is a trend we’re still talking about—and in some cases, erupting into profanity about—10 years on.
Olive Oil Martini
2 oz. Olive Oil–Washed Ford’s Gin
0.35 oz. Cocchi Americano
0.15 oz. Lustau Amontillado Sherry
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice, and stir briskly for 10 to 20 seconds (longer for bigger ice, shorter for smaller). Strain into a Martini or coupe glass, and garnish with three high-quality olives and, if you feel like it, a few drops of olive oil.
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS
Olive Oil: Not to belabor the point, but the better your olive oil, the better the final product. You want something so peppery it’s actually a little difficult to sample straight. Google “artisanal olive oil” and the name of your city and you can likely find someone near you that’s doing such a thing. If not, I use a company called Baker & Olive that is local to me but ships nationally, as needed.
Gin: I tried this with all kinds of gin, and they were all pretty good. Bombay Sapphire performed admirably, Aviation was cool, the old stalwart Tanqueray was excellent as usual, but the day went to Ford’s Gin, which has the perfect flavor profile for this particular application. It’s what won my heart and what we ended up putting into the project, and if you find the idea compelling, it might be worth picking up a bottle for this alone.
To infuse: it’s 8:1, gin to olive oil, i.e. 8 oz. gin to 1 oz. olive oil, and scale up or down as needed. Combine in a clean and non-reactive container, and cover. Let sit four to 24 hours at room temperature, then put in the freezer overnight. In the morning the fat should be solid. Put it through a coffee filter, rebottle, and label. It’ll never go bad but note that olive oil oxidizes in spirit form as well, so I’d keep it in the fridge if I wasn’t planning on using it within a week or so.
Cocchi Americano: You want a little richness from a white style of vermouth (clear like “dry” but sweeter like “sweet”), and the reason I insist on Cocchi Americano is that it has a late palate spice that just sings out of the drink. You can use competitors if you wish (Dolin Blanc, Yzaguirre Blanco, Carpano Bianco, et al) and they’ll all be pretty good, but Cocchi Americano will have the perfect fingerprint that pushes it from good to great.
Amontillado Sherry: This is sherry that starts its life biologically aged and finishes oxidatively aged, which is all to say that it’s drier and more delicate than oloroso but nuttier and more flavorful than fino or manzanilla. Palo Cortado would also work, as needed. It’s worked with all three producers I’ve tried and is used in such small quantities here I suspect that as long as the label says “amontillado,” you’re good.
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