A Salty Dog is a cocktail

Cocktail

A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...

 of vodka

Vodka

Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....

 and grapefruit

Grapefruit

The grapefruit , is a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour fruit, an 18th-century hybrid first bred in Barbados. When found, it was named the "forbidden fruit"; it has also been misidentified with the pomelo or shaddock , one of the parents of this hybrid, the other being sweet orange The...

 juice, served in a glass with a salted rim. The salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

 is the only difference between a Salty Dog and a Greyhound. Gin

Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...

 may be used as a substitute for vodka as in a gimlet

Gimlet (cocktail)

The gimlet is a cocktail made of gin and lime juice. A 1928 description of the drink was: "gin, a spot of lime, and soda" . A 1953 description was: "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else" .For the vodka gimlet, replace gin with vodka...

.

In popular culture

In the Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...

 novel Swag

Swag (novel)

Swag is a crime novel by Elmore Leonard, first published as a paperback in 1976 and since also released as a large print hardcover and as an audio recording. Some paperback editions, including the first American edition, were published under the alternative title of Ryan's Rules .Ernest Stickley, Jr...

, the Salty Dog is the preferred drink of honest and hard-working career criminals Frank Ryan and Ernest Stickley, Jr.

In the television series The Larry Sanders Show

The Larry Sanders Show

The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

, the Salty Dog is the preferred drink of Artie (played by Rip Torn

Rip Torn

Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...

).

In the turn-based web game Kingdom of Loathing

Kingdom of Loathing

Kingdom of Loathing is a browser-based, multiplayer role-playing game designed and operated by Asymmetric Publications, including creator Zack "Jick" Johnson and writer Josh "Mr. Skullhead" Nite. The game was released in 2003...

, the Salty Dog is a mid-grade drink made by mixing gin and grapefruit.

During his years at the Arkansas Gazette

Arkansas Gazette

The Arkansas Gazette, known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River, and located from 1908 until its October 18, 1991 closing at the now historic Gazette Building, was for many years the newspaper of record for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas...

, historian Michael Barrier

Michael Barrier (historian)

Michael Barrier is an American animation historian. Barrier was the founder and editor of Funnyworld, the first magazine exclusively devoted to comics and animation. It began as a contribution to the CAPA-Alpha amateur press association...

 recalled once being seated next to True Grit

True Grit (novel)

True Grit is a 1968 novel by Charles Portis that was first published as a 1968 serial in The Saturday Evening Post. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman named Mattie Ross who recounts the time when she was 14 years old and sought retribution for the murder of her father by a scoundrel...

author Charles Portis

Charles Portis

Charles McColl Portis is an American author best known for his novels Norwood and the 1968 classic Western novel True Grit , both adapted as films. The latter also inspired a film sequel and made-for-TV movie sequel...

at a drinking establishment. Barrier ordered a Salty Dog while Portis "was drinking something darker and much more menacing". Barrier reports Portis "looked incredulous when my drink arrived. When I told him what it was, he responded with a devastating critique..."