What to Make with Dry Vermouth

Here are some delicious (non-martini) options.

By
Maggie Hoffman
Maggie Hoffman is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Maggie Hoffman is a longtime food and drink expert whose recipes and cocktail-making tips can be found on her newsletters What to Drink and The Dinner Plan. She is the author of  The One-Bottle Cocktail and Batch Cocktails, both published by Ten Speed Press.
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Updated November 20, 2023
Closeup of a bottle of Dolin dry vermouth with an old-fashioned green and white label.

Serious Eats

Lots of people are afraid of buying vermouth because, well, they think it'll be gross. That assumption might come from tasting a bottle aged in grandma's pantry for a decade or two. To those people I say: Go right now to your local wine shop and buy a good fresh bottle of dry vermouth. Dolin Dry is affordable and tasty and even comes in half-size bottles. (There are also a number of domestic vermouths these days, if you're interested in investigating further.)

Once you have said bottle, crack it open and taste a little on ice. Add a lemon twist if you so desire. You might have just found your new favorite drink: low(ish) in alcohol, complex in flavor, like white wine but more herbal. After you've tried it straight, use your fresh vermouth in a martini—maybe even a fifty-fifty with equal parts gin and vermouth. Try different gins, too: You may find that you like Tanqueray in a G&T, but prefer something softer in a martini.

Once you've covered these basics, you may start to wonder what else you can do with that bottle. Here are a few ideas to use up what's left...and to convince you that you should always have a bottle on hand.

El Presidente

An El Presidente cocktail garnished with a strip of orange peel.

Serious Eats / Maggie Hoffman

This drink, which appeared in the 1949 edition of Esquire's Handbook for Hosts, brings out the nice citrusy notes of dry vermouth, thanks to a bit of orange curaçao. The orange liqueur is stirred with vermouth and a portion of white rum to warm the drink around the edges, and the orange oils from a generous twist bring it all together.

French Kiss

A French Kiss cocktail made with dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, a lemon twist, and ice.

Serious Eats / Blake Royer

Here's an easy one: dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, lemon twist, ice. The result is light and aromatic, one step from your try-out-the-bottle sip, but worth the tiny bit of extra effort opening bottles. Remember that this will be best if your vermouth is fresh—if you had that bottle for a year, it's time to discard it.

The Brooklyn

The Brooklyn cocktail made with rye, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and Amer Picon.

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

The Brooklyn may be less well-known than its neighbor, the Manhattan, but it's equally delicious. The maraschino liqueur (we recommend Luxardo) adds a rich sweetness, which compensates for the fact that dry rather than sweet vermouth is used. Amer Picon is difficult to find in the United States, but an Italian amaro such as Ramazzotti will substitute quite well. Or, you can skate by with a few dashes of bitters.

Apricot Rhyme

A cocktail called the Apricot Rhyme made with apricot-infused rye and thyme simple syrup, garnished with fresh thyme.

Serious Eats / Maggie Hoffman

People are always saying vermouth is herbal, or it has hints of stone fruit, but why not really bring out those flavors by adding actual stone fruit and herbs? This cocktail from Ryan Gannon of The Spotted Pig in NYC starts with dried apricots soaked in rye, mixed with dry vermouth and a fresh thyme-flavored simple syrup.

The Obituary Cocktail

An Obituary Cocktail in a martini glass made with dry vermouth, gin, and absinthe.

Serious Eats / Blake Royer

Gin and vermouth come together in this simple cocktail, which has a gentle fennel-y flavor thanks to a touch of absinthe or pastis. If you like gin and generally enjoy a martini, this is a spin you should definitely try.

September 2013

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