Gibson cocktail ingredients
Cocktails

The Gibson

Tonight’s cocktail of choice is the Gibson — essentially a martini with a cocktail onion. Create your own ratio of gin to vermouth.

  • 2 oz Gin
  • 3/4 oz dry vermouth
  • 1 pickled cocktail onion

With ice in your cocktail shaker add the gin and vermouth and stir until cold. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the onion and enjoy.

I decided to try the Gibson after watching the Queen’s Gambit and got a bit hooked.

*cough* It’s good. Is that a martini?

A Gibson. I find the onion slightly more refined than the olive.

The Queen’s Gambit. Season 1. Episode 3.

At first I bought cocktail onions from the grocery store, but found them a bit too sweet. This past summer I decided to try pickling my own and created a hybrid recipe that I really liked.

  • 1/2 cup white vinegar 
  • 1 cup dry vermouth 
  • 3 tablespoons sugar 
  • 2 tablespoon coarse salt 
  • 1 pound peeled pearl onions 
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds 
  • 1 tablespoon allspice berries
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Bring vinegar, vermouth, sugar, and salt to a boil. Pack pearl onions, coriander seeds, allspice berries, and black peppercorns into a glass jar. Pour in liquid; let cool completely. Cover; refrigerate 1 week before using.

To make the onions easier to peel you can blanche them in boiling water for 1 minute after trimming the root ends. Submerge them in an ice water bath and drain. Simply pinch them and the onion pops out of their skin.

Sláinte!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *