"Vermouth-Gin"

[The Hersch]

I've just been visiting Aix-en-Provence and simultaneously reading MFK Fisher's beautiful memoir of the town (A Map of Another Town). In her book, Fisher repeatedly refers to a drink she calls a "vermouth-gin", which she apparently drank quite a lot of. I don't believe she ever uses the term "martini". When I had a drink at Les Deux Garçons, where she had some of these "vermouth-gins", I was too chicken to try to order one, but I have a feeling if I had done so they wouldn't have known what I was talking about (Fisher was writing about her time there in the 1950s). Is anyone familiar with this "vermouth-gin" term, and how it might differ from a martini? 50-50, perhaps?

[jmfangio]

My understanding is that it's 50/50 gin and sweet vermouth.

[The Hersch]

Room temperature? On ice? Stirred with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass?

[maggiejiggs]

I've just been visiting Aix-en-Provence and simultaneously reading MFK Fisher's beautiful memoir of the town (A Map of Another Town). In her book, Fisher repeatedly refers to a drink she calls a "vermouth-gin", which she apparently drank quite a lot of. I don't believe she ever uses the term "martini". When I had a drink at Les Deux Garçons, where she had some of these "vermouth-gins", I was too chicken to try to order one, but I have a feeling if I had done so they wouldn't have known what I was talking about (Fisher was writing about her time there in the 1950s). Is anyone familiar with this "vermouth-gin" term, and how it might differ from a martini? 50-50, perhaps?

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We were at a wedding in Cambridge, England, and though I love the beer, I really felt it was time for a martini. We were in a pub, and the Slovak waiter (we're not the only multicultural country in the world) said he knew how to make an American martini. Here's me, imagining the world of James Bond, of course. So he proffered me his martini, a 50/50 mix of gin and vermouth

A guest in the establishment offered this explanation, so don't quote me

Pub licenses are restricted, so the liquor comes out in shots (ounces or such), and so they can't just squirt a hint of of vermouth into it. The only place I got a legitimate martini was in London in our hotel bar (not a pub). So, I can't tell you for sure, but maybe this is why Fisher was drinking vermouth-gin, even in France.

[Sneakeater]

Actually, for some of us, a fifty/fifty split is closer to a proper Martini than the usual whiff-of-vermouth you get.

Edited October 17, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[The Hersch]

Actually, for some of us, a fifty/fifty split is closer to a proper Martini than the usual whiff-of-vermouth you get.

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Understood, but I wish I knew exactly what MFK Fisher was drinking.

[eje]

Room temperature? On ice? Stirred with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass?

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There's a cocktail called 'Gin and French' which is made a couple ways. I find recipes as a martini-like cocktail, made with 6/10s gin 4/10s vermouth, chilled, strained, and garnished with a lemon peel. It also appears to be made as a long drink, half gin and half vermouth, over ice, topped with soda or tonic, also with a lemon peel garnish.

Perhaps Vermouth-Gin is just another way of referring to the same cocktail?

As far as I know, dry vermouth aperitifs are always served at least chilled, and often over ice. I would imagine this drink would be served similarly. I don't think anyone drinks room temperature dry vermouth (or gin, for that matter).

edit - Oh, by the way, a lot of articles about Martinis name check MFK Fisher as a fancier. Apparently, she wrote a whole essay about the difficulty of getting a proper Martini in France.

edit again - Still not sure which essay was referred to above; but, she did write an article for the Atlantic in Jan 1949 called, "To the Gibson and Beyond". There's a quote from that aricle here in this American Heritage article about Martinis, "A well-made Martini or Gibson, correctly chilled and nicely served, has been more often my true friend than any two-legged creature."

Edited October 17, 2006 by eje (log)

[The Hersch]

As far as I know, dry vermouth aperitifs are always served at least chilled, and often over ice.  I would imagine this drink would be served similarly.  I don't think anyone drinks room temperature dry vermouth (or gin, for that matter).

edit - Oh, by the way, a lot of articles about Martinis name check MFK Fisher as a fancier.  Apparently, she wrote a whole essay about the difficulty of getting a proper Martini in France.

edit again - Still not sure which essay was referred to above; but, she did write an article for the Atlantic in Jan 1949 called, "To the Gibson and Beyond".  There's a quote from that aricle here in this American Heritage article about Martinis, "A well-made Martini or Gibson, correctly chilled and nicely served, has been more often my true friend than any two-legged creature."

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Thanks for the references. In the Lowell Edmunds article you link to, Fisher is quoted as saying that in France, to get a martini you must ask for "Martini-gin". Since in Europe generally "martini" means vermouth (in my observation), perhaps she changed this to "vermouth-gin" in her book about Aix in order not to confuse her American readers. If that was her intent, I think she failed (although I hold her writing in extravagantly high regard otherwise).

I must say that I'm left with less than high regard for Lowell Edmunds. When you quote someone's article, tell us the name of the article and where it appeared, for pity's sake.

On the subject of room-temperature drinks: You're forgetting the English! If English television is any guide, the English drink room-temperature gin-and-tonic. You can see Judi Dench do it repeatedly on "As Time Goes By".

[Mayur]

On the subject of room-temperature drinks: You're forgetting the English! If English television is any guide, the English drink room-temperature gin-and-tonic. You can see Judi Dench do it repeatedly on "As Time Goes By".

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The English room-temp drinking thing probably has to do with two things: First, the lack of high-efficiency, spacious refrigeration and freezing in much of the country until recently (I've been to plenty a pub north of Durham that doesn't serve ice or have a fridge large enough to hold more than a few soft drinks); second, the British colonial experience, which might discourage putting water, frozen or otherwise, into drinks. I've spent many a summer in India having no ice unless I was at a fancy hotel; certainly never ordering an iced drink at the club.

[eje]

[...]

I must say that I'm left with less than high regard for Lowell Edmunds. When you quote someone's article, tell us the name of the article and where it appeared, for pity's sake.

[...]

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Well, I wouldn't hold it against Edmunds. The article is a teaser advertising his book, "MARTINI, STRAIGHT UP" on the publisher's website. I believe it is the Introduction.

Presumably, the actual book contains a bibliography listing the source of the Fisher quote.

Anyone have it hanging around to confirm and hopefully give the source?

I've read a few MFK Fisher books and it doesn't seem familiar to me. If I had read a Fisher rant on Martinis, I would think I would remember.

[The Hersch]

  If I had read a Fisher rant on Martinis, I would think I would remember.

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Yeah, me too.