TL;DR:

Is there some way to get alcohol extract out of ground spice that's
turned into slime?


Verbose:

I like to make my own no-bake pumpkin pies (pudding and pumpkin and
spices) and pumpkin cheesecake, and have made cooked pumpkin pies from
scratch (if you count using the pumpkin in a can.) One problem I have is
that the pumpkin pie spice always seems to make them taste like dirt to
me, and even just ground cinnamon in other things.

So I saw pumpkin pie extract was available, though a bit on the
expensive side, but the ground spice is pretty cheap comparatively. I
looked up how to make it and it seemed simple enough, put some of the
spices in a jar with some alcohol and shake occasionally for a couple weeks.

I put about 4 rounded tps in a small jar mason jar I think was about a
cup. That was about 1/4 of the jar. I then filled it up halfway with
tequila shook it each day. After about a week I was curious and opened
it up. I used a tiny amount in my coffee (I often shake a dash of
pumpkin spice in my coffee.) It tasted fine, better than the usual dry
stuff, however I noticed it had a very weird consistency. I'd say it
was slime-like, it stuck together and tended to pull off the spoon when
lifting it. I also noticed even though I had shook it for a day it
hadn't settled at all. I filled up the jar almost to the top with
Tequila hoping I just needed more alcohol and shook it again. That
hasn't settled at all either.

I'm assuming the spices absorbed all the alcohol and expanded. Or
perhaps there's cornstarch in them to help make them more shelf stable,
which would explain why it turned into slime. It's not listed on the ingredients though.

Is there some way to get the extract out of this slime and usable?

I'm thinking a coffee filter wouldn't work because of the constancy.

If it's impossible, I'd still be happy to use it in my coffee so it's
not a waste. I could try some in a pie and see if that helps with the
dirt flavor without doing that I guess.

--
-Justisaur

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