Sam Horwitz's Classic Cocktail Compendium

Martini

• 2 fluid ounces of London dry gin
• ½ fluid ounce^¹ of French vermouth
• 1 dash of orange bitters

Stir all of the ingredients with ice in frozen mixing glass and strain into a frozen cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or an odd number of olives.

Perfect Martini

Add ½ fluid ounce of Italian vermouth. Garnish with a lemon twist or an orange peel.

Vodka Martini

Switch the gin to vodka and increase to 2½ fluid ounces. Only use enough vermouth to wet the ice (pour ¼ fluid ounce over the ice and dump out the excess). Skip the bitters entirely. Shake with ice and double strain into a frozen cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or preferably an odd number of olives.

Vesper

Reduce the gin to 1½ fluid ounces and add ½ fluid ounce of vodka. Instead of orange bitters and French vermouth, use ¼ fluid ounce (1½ teaspoons) of a Kina Lillet substitute. Garnish with a lemon peel.

Martinez

This cocktail is not a riff on the Martini, it’s actually the missing link leading up to it. Instead of London dry, use Old Tom gin and reduce to 1 fluid ounce. Instead of French vermouth, use Italian, and up the amount to 2 fluid ounces. Replace the orange bitters with a Boker’s bitters substitute and add 1 teaspoon of maraschino liqueur. Garnish with a lemon twist or peel.