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Thanks, I agree with you on all counts. I know of recipes my grandmother made where the ingredients changed due to "new and improved," but her recipes didn't and the result was they didn't taste as good anymore. I expect the vinegar wasn't nearly as acidic and the mustard neither, so this sauce probably is very different if made now with current ingredients. That is a good idea to dilute the vinegar. I'll have to research and see if I can find some old mustard recipes. This is an interesting topic.
Yep, ingredients today are a bit different than those of 200 years ago. But,
I don't get into the nuances of the differences between ingredients today and centuries ago. As times changed, ingredients changed but recipes stayed the same.
I have no plans of making my own vinegar or other types of ingredients. Virginians used what they had on hand to season barbecue. That's what's in this recipe. The mustard I use is plain old yellow mustard. The old recipes didn't specify whether the mustard was hot English mustard or some kind of French mustard or German mustard. Sometimes recipes do specify dry mustard but most just call for mustard. So, whatever mustard you like is fair game. I use Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar, a store bought currant jelly and Morton's salt. I did grow the cayenne pepper flakes I use but nothing else.
As far as the vinegar goes, I would imagine that home made vinegar would be much less acidic than what we buy nowadays. I account for that in the recipe by adding a 1/4 cup of water.
One old version of this recipe calls for currant or "any acidic jelly." So, there was wiggle room based upon what was on hand.