Ingredients
- 2 ounces vodka or dill-infused vodka
- ¾ ounce dill pickle brine
- ½ ounce dry vermouth
- Ice
- Dill pickle slice for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a martini glass or coupe.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, vodka, pickle juice, and dry vermouth.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into chilled glass.
- Garnish with dill pickle slice.
Variations and Substitutions
The dill pickle martini doesn't follow a standard recipe, which is great news if you're looking for ways to mess around with ingredients.
- Swap vodka for gin. After sampling gin, try out different styles of gin such as Old Tom, Plymouth, London dry, and genever.
- Experiment with different proportions, using more or less dill pickle juice for a brinier flavor or just a quarter ounce for a more subtle flavor.
- Skip the dry vermouth for a bone dry dill pickle martini.
- Add more dry vermouth, if desired, based on personal preference.
- Include a splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice or lime juice for a citrus flavor.
- Use pickle vodka, a new flavor that can be found on some shelves.
- Infuse vodka or gin with pickles, you can use the infused spirit with or without the dill pickle juice based on how much dill flavor you'd like.
- Spice it up with jalapeño-infused vodka.
Garnishes
There's no traditional garnish for the dill pickle martini other than including a pickle in some form, but if this doesn't work for your dill martini vision, there are plenty of other complementary garnish options.
- You can opt for a whole dill pickle spear for a larger, more extravagant garnish.
- Cut up a whole dill pickle spear and pierce the pieces with a cocktail skewer for a big flavor without the garnish rolling around.
- Opt for a citrus touch with a lemon or lime ribbon, twist, peel, or coin.
- For a strong citrus touch, use a citrus wedge, wheel, or slice.
- Use a gherkin pickle for a smaller pickle garnish.
- Wrap a citrus peel around any pickle garnish for a unique look.
About the Dill Pickle Martini
To understand the dill pickle martini, as well as the differences between these two martinis, it's important to know the classic dirty martini. The briny liquid gold has been sloshing around in shakers and glasses since the turn of the 19th century into the new days of the 1900s. Like many cocktails, New York City lays claim to its origins.
The dill pickle martini has a quieter origin story. So quiet that its whispers have never been recorded. Dill isn't a prominent ingredient in cocktails, the Bloody Mary family the only ones to readily accepting of its flavors. However, the garlicky salty goodness of dill pickle brine takes the regular dirty martini to places it could only dream of. Whether you opt for store-bought or homemade pickles, there's no wrong way to brine the dill pickle martini.
From in a Pickle to in a Martini Glass
The dill pickle martini could be unusual at first glance, but it's not much of a leap from the dirty martini to the dill pickle martini. The brine adds a savory flavor to the classic, crisp martini, giving it new life. Much like a crisp dill pickle.
