Briny Blue Cheese Dirty Martini Recipe

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I tend to view cocktails as either aperitifs or digestifs, with the former often being citrusy or bubbly in anticipation of a meal, and the latter often being sweet enough to take the place of cakes, brownies, or ice cream. Rarely do I consider cocktails a part of the meal itself, and as such, I tend to avoid savory versions. The one exception is a blue cheese dirty martini, which has a spunky, funky flavor behind a crisp, potent mix of vodka and vermouth. It pairs perfectly with grilled steak and fresh oysters, so I also tend to save the dry martini for special occasions — which means that when I do have one, I go all-out.

If you have a place to get great stuffed olives like we do here in Cleveland (thanks, West Side Market), you may not need to stuff your own, but learning how will give you the freedom to fine-tune your dirty martinis so they taste exactly how you want them. You can choose your cheese and your olives, which can change the flavor of your drink based on what you pick. In this briny blue cheese dirty martini recipe, I not only share the best ratio for a salty, briny dirty martini, but also guide you on stuffing your own olives for a perfectly balanced, briny martini each and every time.

You'll need green olives for this recipe, and it is important that you find olives that have a good amount of brine with them. Most olives in jars or containers will be packed in brine, but if you are buying á la carte at the grocery store olive station or a specialty shop, be sure to ask for or include extra brine. From there, choose a blue cheese you love; you'll only need a small amount for this recipe. Then, grab your favorite vodka and a dry vermouth to make the cocktail.

To prepare the olives, carefully add the blue cheese to each olive, snugly fitting the cheese into the olive hole.

Pierce a cocktail pick into the olives and set aside.

Fill a martini glass with ice and set aside to chill.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.

Add the vodka, olive brine, and vermouth and shake until chilled, about 10 seconds.

Remove the ice from the martini glass and strain the cocktail into the glass.

Garnish with prepared olives to serve.

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The beauty of this recipe is that you can customize the cheese that you use in the olives. My version is particularly funky, made using one of the Trader Joe's blue cheese bricks, which range between Roquefort and Blue Stilton. Crumbled blue cheese is often a little more mild than varieties like these, and may be a good place to start if you aren't sure about the funky flavor. If you already know you don't like blue cheese but want to experience a dirty martini with stuffed olives, you can swap for other cheeses.

My first recommendation would be feta cheese, which is mild, savory, and salty without the funk of blue cheese. If you want to test the waters of blue cheese, you could also try crumbled gorgonzola, which tends to be less funky than blue cheese, especially varieties like Blue Stilton or Roquefort. You can also try marinated mozzarella cheese, which will add an extra dimension of flavor to the drink along with being a delicious snack when the drink is finished.

Choosing a spirit for your martini depends partially on the type of martini, but largely on which spirit you prefer. It can be a hotly contested issue in the martini world: Does gin or vodka make a better dirty martini? The truth is, both can work well, but will produce very different martinis. Gin, being a botanical-flavored spirit, will have a more floral, juniper-forward flavor, which can get masked the salty flavor of the brine (or even clash with it). Vodka, being a mild-flavored spirit, will create an olive-forward martini, even emphasizing the dry vermouth more than a gin martini would.

It's also important to consider the type of gin. Gins don't all taste the same, and choosing one that mixes well with olive brine is important in making the best gin dirty martini. Gins that work well with olive brine are London drys like Beefeater or Tanqueray, which are juniper forward, and gins that use olives as a botanical, such as Gin Mare. Look for gins with herbs like rosemary and thyme listed as botanicals, and avoid gins with delicate flavor notes like cucumbers, florals, or lemon.

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