This ratio thing......

[Insert A. Username]

The old measures are not good to go with. In my opinion they use miles to much vermouth. The ice melting into the gin during the production process should provide enough extra liquid. You certainly don't need anything except fragrance from your vermouth.

To avoid the ratios, just stick with this guide. It's not the most classic martini in the world, but it works well.

First you need to take your vodka and put it in the next room, or neck the whole bottle, or, if it's over 55%, pour it on someone you hate and set them on fire. It doesn't matter which you choose, but the vodka needs to go away. If a martini sees vodka, it will immediately ruin itself out of spite.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, and pour 2cl (20ml) of good vermouth in to it, and give it a shake. Next pour off the resulting liquid, leaving only the vermouth coated ice.

Stick a few fresh Ice cubes in your glass to chill it. Throw these out before you tip the finished product in there.

Now pour ~8cl (80ml) of gin into the shaker over the existing ice (most bartenders go with 5 or 6cl, but that's wavering on the side of weakness - you'll just need a largish martini glass). I like a quite a dirty martini, so I'd stick about 2cl of olive brine in there too. Now you can either shake, or stir. Shaking will melt a little more ice into it, so it'll come out a tad weaker.

Pour it out using a strainer to exclude the ice (obviously), and you are done.

The extra use of ice with the vermouth will make a slightly weaker martini (more time for ice to melt) than some purists will like, but I find some of the botanicals of finer gins difficult to get at when they are full strength. If you like it strong, just buy your gin at naval (gunpowder spark) strength (about 63-67%).

I use either the standard Plymouth, if I want a smooth Plymouth style (obviously), or Martin Millers if I am in the mood for a Dry London. At a pinch I'll also use Tanqueray (the normal stuff - Tanqueray No. 10 is not worth the money), or Gordon's. If possible I'd always use Noily Pratt dry vermouth. As for accompaniments; don't have olives with a Plymouth style gin - try cucumber instead. Dry London's can be had with olives or a twist of lemon peal (you can get a zester with a cutting piece for a long twist, but I just use a knife).

[Judge]

Sounds great, shove one right over here my way.

[Mayhem]

First you need to take your vodka pour it on someone you hate and set them on fire.

I usually just put a curse on them and wish them dead. It works for me.

[Jiggers McCoy]

Gotta agree with the new guy (I'll take a bottle of gordon's gin, shaken over ice, served up), ratios and martinis dont go together, unless you wanna get into stuff like 20:1, which is just unhelpful.

[GreatWhiteNortherner]

Just think about vermouth for a moment while you pour your next one and your ratio should be about right.

[beerkegbilly]

I seen on good eats Alton brown (the host of the show) just rolled the ice in vermouth by shakers.Mixed the gin or vodka back in shaker with ice.strand the ice pour in martinis add the olives pearl onions .He said Winston Churchill a truly good martinis it just looks at the bottle of vermouth from across the room.I don't drink them.

[The Limey]

Use Noilly Prat vermouth as its nicer too.

Keep experimenting until you find what you like, and as stated before only use gin never vodka.

Unless you're impressing the ladies by pretending to be James Bond.

[The Limey]

Ernest Hemingway created the Montgomery. Monty refused to engage Rommel's forces until his superiority in troops was 15:1 ( Monty was an overrated pussy ).

3 3/4 msr gin
1/4 msr dry vermouth

stir and strain - twist of lemon.

[binary]

If you want to get better at making cocktails there are a lot of great blogs about it. Search google for cocktail blogs or something. You'll end up spending a lot of time (and money) but its kinda like the best drinking game ever: find a drink that looks good, make it, drink it, repeat until you perfect it or pass out.

[Bluto]

Use Noilly Prat vermouth as its nicer too.

Keep experimenting until you find what you like, and as stated before only use gin never vodka.

Unless you're impressing the ladies by pretending to be James Bond.

That'd be the movie version of James Bond, I imagine. The Vespar Martini calls for both vodka AND gin as well as Lillet.
james also drank a lot of borbound. In fact, he drank quite a few different things in a number of various cocktails.

[The Limey]

Use Noilly Prat vermouth as its nicer too.

Keep experimenting until you find what you like, and as stated before only use gin never vodka.

Unless you're impressing the ladies by pretending to be James Bond.

That'd be the movie version of James Bond, I imagine. .

That is correct. Pretending to be the literary version of James Bond will probably get you nowhere with the ladies.

[beerkegbilly]

drink to you find the ratio you like