The Cocktail Hour & Martinis

  

Jane Mansfield and Tom Cruise do cocktails (how cute was he?!)

6pm. The dinner is under control, the table set, the kids are in the bath or still playing happily outside. We are just waiting for the man of the house to return.

The stereotypical image of the1950s housewife is that she had a martini ready for her husband as he walked through the door of an evening. If she was anything like me, she would have it made by 6pm and if he wasn’t home, she would drink it herself! Goodness knows I need one by then, after three hour of noisy children, being at the office all day, housework, helping with homework/craft/whatever, laundry, dog walking and bike riding, dinner preparation and tidying. Of course if he is home before dinner he gets one too, and so do the neighbours if they ‘happen’ to pop in at that time. What used to be the ‘arsenic hour’, that crazy hour before dinner, is now the ‘cocktail hour.

The martini is an iconic 1950s drink, but it was popular too during the 1920s prohibition era in America. The addition of vermouth to gin helped to hide the taste of the illegally back garden or bath-tub brewed alcohol. As the gin got better, more was used and martinis became drier, and colder.

The citizens of Martinez, California claim that in 1870 a bartender named Julio Richelieu concocted a glass of gin, vermouth, orange, bitters and an olive for a miner who was unhappy with the whiskey he had paid a gold nugget for. So was born the Martinez, pronounced Martini.

However, the Oxford English Dictionary credits the liquor company Martini e Sola (now Martini and Rossi) with the invention of the martini. In 1871 the company shipped 100 cases of red vermouth to New York, although it is also said that a bartender at the Knickerbocker Hotel named Martini di Arma di Taggia invented it in 1911 for John D. Rockefeller. This recipe was London Dry Gin, dry vermouth, bitters, lemon peel and one olive.

  

The 1928 silent movie and the Thin Man from 1934

Some people like their martinis dry, or extra dry, that is with more gin. Some are made 6 parts gin to 1 part vermouth, or even 12 to 1. Some people prefer vodka to gin, and other recipes call for both. I prefer equal parts of gin and vermouth, and just ordinary London dry (Gordon’s) gin and dry (cinzano) vermouth, as I find some vermouths, such as noilly prat, to have too much flavour (nice on it’s own). Mind you, my husband calls it the ‘super model’ of vermouths, and derides me for wanting something else. I am not an olive person, so I also like to substitute the olive garnish for just a lemon twist.

 

As to shaken or stirred – I use a shaker and add ice, before straining into a glass. James Bond used to prefer shaken, not stirred, but as Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royal changed that. When asked his preference by the bartender he replied “Do I look like I give a damn?” (I some how prefer the suave and tidy Pierce Brosnan).

  

And the glass? Martini glasses are designed with a long stem in order to keep the drink cold without the use of ice, and the wide mouth is said to bring the bouquet of the drink to your nose. My children say they smell like perfume, so why not?! Another theory is that during prohibition the wide mouth made the drink easy to drink quickly if there was a raid. From experience I can also say that drinking a martini makes you sit up elegantly – there is no slouching aloud – as the shaped of the glass makes it easy to spill, and dribble down the sides of your mouth.

 

Mae West - This is the movie she introduced the famous one-liner, "You should get out of those wet clothes and into a Dry Martini."

Movies, film stars and singers such as Jack London, Dean Martin,James Stewart, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mae West and of course James Bond from the 1960s helped bring the martini to Australia.

Down Argentina Way in 1940, Betty Grable orders a Martini.

In the Philadelphia Story in 1940 Cary Grant Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart drink Martinis.

In Sabrina in 1954, Walter Hampden makes a Martini but then has trouble getting the last olive out of the jar. He finally pours his Martini into the jar.I can see his point!

In the The Seven Year Itch from 1955 Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell drink Martinis,  and she also mentions that she watered the plants with a cocktail shaker.  Well, I water mine with the teapot.

 

Dino and NCIS recently

However you like it, with your martini in hand and a loved one (or gorgeous one) beside you, is there a better end to the day (and start to the evening) than sitting and sipping, watching the sunset?

Have a lovely 50s evening, cheers, Deb xxx