MSG martini
Savory, filthy and faintly illegal-feeling. Stir, don't ask.
At a Glance
Story
MSG is not a chemical scare story, dear boy, it is glutamate with a sodium chaperone, the same savory molecule a chemist named Kikunae Ikeda pulled out of a pot of kombu broth in 1908 and christened umami. It dissolves clean, carries no bitterness of its own and lends a martini the round, mouth-filling savor that olive brine only gestures at. A quarter teaspoon is plenty. More and it turns to soup.
Ingredients
- 5 fl oz London dry gin or a good cold vodka
- 1 fl oz dry vermouth
- ¼ tsp MSG
- ½ fl oz olive brineoptional, for a properly filthy one
- icefor stirring
- Castelvetrano olives or a lemon twistto garnish
Method
Every filthy martini is chasing savor. Most reach for olive brine and end up cloudy and sharp. This one goes to the source instead, and keeps the glass crystalline.
- Put your coupes or martini glasses in the freezer while you work. A warm glass is the fastest way to ruin a cold drink.
- In a mixing glass combine the gin, vermouth and MSG, and the olive brine if you are being wicked. Stir a moment with no ice first, just to dissolve the grains.
- Fill the glass with ice and stir long and steady, about 20 seconds. You stir a spirit-only drink rather than shake it because shaking clouds it with air and shards, and here you want it clear and silky, not frothed.
- Strain into the frozen glasses. Olives on the skewer for whoever wants them, a lemon twist for whoever doesn't, expressed over the top so the oils catch the light.
Make a jug of it for a party by scaling up the chips and stirring in batches over plenty of ice. Do not pre-dilute and hold, it goes flat and sad within the hour.
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