Add all three ingredients to an ice-filled shaker. Mix vigorously, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Dirty Martinies are usually garnished similarly to a traditional Dry Martini, but since the focus is on the olives, some recipes call for gourmet versions such as blue cheese, garlic or jalapeno stuffed olives. Extra olives are used as garnishes to emphasize the flavor (garnish with three olives).
In spite of being frowned upon by cocktail purists, the Dirty Martini is one of the most popular cocktails in the world. Also known as the FDR Martini, after the American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Dirty Martini is an incredible tool in the today’s repertoire of the modern bartender. Cocktail connoisseurs consider Dirty Martini’s as one of the worst cocktails thinkable when made incorrectly, but if professionally prepared, based on premium quality gin, authentic vermouth, a small quantity of a first-class brand of olive brine and garnished (or served) with an abundance of superior tasting olives, these ingredients can lead up to a magnificent concoction.
Franklin Roosevelt is credited with popularizing the Dirty Martini during the Yalta Conference in 1945. The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference – held from February 4 to 11 in 1945 – was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union to discuss Europe's post-war reorganization. The three states were represented by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively pictured from left to right, while in Yalta, in 1945. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea, Soviet Union.
According to several cocktail anecdotes, the Dirty Martini came about one morning during the Yalta Conference, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt mentioned his hangover to Stalin. Stalin then referred to his country’s old hair of the dog remedy (the Russians have a history of adding the salty brine of pickle juice to their vodka as a hangover cure), but vodka and pickle juice were not available for breakfast at the WWII conference among the Allied leaders. Then apparently Churchill procured a bottle of gin and a jar of olives and the three world-leaders then unanimously proclaimed the recipe a victory and the Dirty Martini was created.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) was the president to end Prohibition: on December 5, 1933, Roosevelt proclaimed that the 21st Amendment had been ratified, completing the nationwide prohibition of alcohol. Roosevelt, an avid amateur bartender, was said to celebrate repeal with one of his personal favorites and cocktail of choice, a Plymouth gin martini with an olive and a twist.
When entertaining at the White House, Roosevelt was known to often personally mix cocktails for his guests and partake in the mixing of drinks, particularly cocktails with gin. For such occasions, the President presented a sterling silver cocktail shaker, complete with a bamboo motif and six matching cups (he even had a maroon leather case with a blue velvet interior for the set so he could take it with him when he traveled).
