Take Your Dirty Martini Up A Notch With Canned Sardines

If you like to order your martinis dirtier than dusty roads after the rain, then this tip is for you. Next time you're making martinis to impress guests or celebrate surviving another week, grab a can of sardines to add a briny kick to the sharp burn of an ice-cold martini. If you're not ready to completely revolutionize your perfected martini recipe, there are some baby steps you can take.

There's nothing quite like cracking the code to your ideal dirty martini. Despite this classic cocktail being a relatively straightforward drink with only three ingredients, there are endless martini variations that can make or break your flavor profile. There's even debate over which liquor to use: vodka or gin? Before becoming a complete convert of the sardine martini — or the "sardini martini" — try adding sardine-stuffed olives to your martini first.

Grab some Spanish Queen martini olives from your local grocery store. This type of olive is easy to find and considered to be the premium standard for martinis because of their large, meaty bodies. Plus, it's very easy to remove the pimento filling and stuff it with your own filling. We recommend using a toothpick to fish out large flakes of anchovy and using it to stuff those fish flakes into your olive for a brine-on-brine flavor festival.

Okay, you've tested the waters with the sardine-stuffed olive garnish and you're ready to graduate to the next step — great! This one takes a little pre-planning as you'll have to fat wash or oil wash your liquor of choice. To fat-wash your alcohol, you'll want about 1 ounce of sardine oil (a typical can is about 4 ounces) to 1 ½ cups gin or vodka. Put the oil and alcohol in a mason jar, screw the lid shut, and shake, baby, shake.

Once the oil and alcohol are thoroughly mixed together, let it sit on your counter for a few hours with a few more shakes to keep everything dispersed before popping it into your freezer. The cold temperature should solidify the oil so it's easy to skim off the top. If it's hard to skim, just pour your alcohol through a cheesecloth; you'll have to do this anyway to get rid of the fat.

Once your liquor of choice is properly fat-washed, your Sardini Martini is just on the horizon. Pour 2 ½ ounces of fat-washed liquor with ¾ of an ounce of dry vermouth into a tumbler with some ice. Stir or swirl the liquid around the ice and then pour through a strainer into a martini glass. Skewer two or three sardine-stuffed olives through a toothpick for garnish. Make sure to sip with your eyes closed, maybe with the score to "Casino Royale" playing in the background.