Dirt Road Martini
Dolly Parton's southern take on the dirty martini: vodka and unsweetened tea, dirtied with brine from a jar of pickled vegetables.
Similar names: Dirt 'n Diesel, Dirt in my Drink
The Dirt Road Martini appears in the September chapter of Good Lookin' Cookin', the 2024 cookbook Dolly Parton wrote with her sister Rachel Parton George. The chapter collects food from life on the road, which is where the drink gets its name. It is a dirty martini with two substitutions that should not work and do. Unsweetened iced tea stands in for dry vermouth, which is the southern move, and the olive brine is replaced by the liquid from a jar of giardiniera, the Italian-American pickled vegetable mix most associated with Chicago. The brine brings salt and vinegar heat where the olives would have brought salt alone, and the tea brings tannin that keeps the drink dry rather than sweet. The pickled vegetables are the garnish, which the sisters noted is what makes the martini especially good lookin'.
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