The Habanero-Lime Bitters came out of an attempt at Charles Baker's Hellfire Bitters from
A Gentleman's Companion*...at the time, we couldn't get our hands on cinchona/quinine, so upped the amount of lime peel & pith. This produced a noticeable lime flavor, such that I don't think of them as Hellfire bitters, but Habanero-Lime bitters.
Freshly toasted chocolate habaneros were the pepper of choice. While I don't have any notes from the process, I believe it was close to this recipe found on
Art of Drink.
Ingredients
2 Cups Very Hot Chiles
2 Tbsp Molasses
2 Cups Vodka
2 Limes (Quartered)
½ tsp Cinchona Bark Powder
8 Allspice Berries, Crushed
Blend all ingredients. Age in a sterile container for two weeks. Store in a cool/dark place. Shake daily. Strain through cheese cloth. Bottle.
ETA: For the Vodka, Tito's worked just fine.
*Here is the text from Baker...as with much of his work, not very helpful as a modern recipe.
Quote:
This Hell-Fire Bitters is an excellent cooking and seasoning sauce for
fish, salads, soups and meets, when mixed half-and-half with strained
lime juice and stood for 2 wks, in an uncovered bottle, before
using--a fact which has been disclosed in Volume I.
Pound up 2 cups of scarlet round bird peppers, or small chilis or
cayenne peppers. Put in a saucepan with 1 cup of tart white wine;
summer up once and turn everything into a pint jar, add 1 cup of
cognac brandy and seal jar tight. Let steep for 14 days, strain
through several thicknesses of cloth and bottle for use. When used
solely for seasoning food, put everything through a fine sieve. These
peppers have a vast amount of flavour in their scarlet skin and flesh,
entirely aside from the intense heat of their oils. Seeds for their
home growth in ordinary window boxes, flower pots, or rusty tin cans!,
may be bought at any half-way seed store.
If no fresh peppers are possible simply stir 1/4 oz of ground cayenne
pepper into the wine-brandy mix. Claret and brandy, claret alone,
sherry and brandy, sherry alone, and brandy alone, are also authentic
steeping fluids. Actually it is not a "bitters" at all unless a
little cinchona bark is add--and 1/2 drachm or so is plenty, strained
out at the last along with the pepper pods.
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