When channel surfing Monday night I came upon Food Network's "Good Eats" with that wacky chef Alton Brown. He's so fun I couldn't look away when he taught how to make the perfect martini (even though I don't like or need to make one).

I was fascinated though by his technique for how to get the proportion of vermouth just right. I know some people wave the bottle over the shaker of gin but that never seemed correct.

Brown starts with gin not the currently in vogue choice of vodka. Traditional martinis are made with gin. Brown observed gin is made the same way as vodka but with the added flavor of juniper.

For the perfect martini, he fills a shaker with crushed ice and pours an ounce of dry vermouth from a shot glass. Then he shakes it up and pours out the vermouth. The ice is now coated with enough vermouth to complement the 2 ounces of gin which will be poured into the shaker.

Stir, don't shake. Brown said that stirring produces a colder drink. Strain the martini into a glass with an olive at the bottom. You should have chilled the glass by filling it with ice and then throwing out the ice.

To crush ice, I put a few cubes in a clean dishtowel and then use my meat mallet to break it up into small pieces.