From Ashes to Bread

Damper, a traditional Australian bread, holds a special place in the culinary history of the early European settlers. Whilst I've enjoyed damper cooked in a camp oven, over an open fire, historical accounts suggest it was often baked directly in the ashes. Would damper cooked in the ashes have tasted as good as that cooked in a camp oven? This comparison intrigues me. Two primary sources shed light on this traditional method.

Lucy Frost's ‘No Place for a Nervous Lady’ offers a vivid glimpse into the lives of women settlers through their letters and diaries. Mary Jane McGregor, one of these women, vividly describes her first encounter with damper-making: ‘It was a sight to me when I saw the first damper made.’ She recounts how a large fire was built and a man on hands and knees mixed flour with salt and lukewarm water in a dish and kneaded the dough thoroughly whilst the fire was burning down. ‘He spread it out and it resembled the small wheel of a buggy.’ How big would that have been? It does sound like it would have been quite large. The ashes of the fire were flattened with a shovel and the damper laid on the ashes. A layer of cool ashes was spread over it, followed by hotter ashes. Mary Jane describes how she watched the ashes rise until she could see the edge of the damper. After an hour the ashes were swept of with a branch, the damper was taken out of the fire and beaten with a bag. Apparently you would not have known that it had been in the ashes and it was ‘really good bread.’

The second reference to the making of damper was in the book ‘A Fortunate Life’ by A B Facey and the process seemed very similar. I would not consider this book well structured as one would expect from a man who taught himself to read and write, however, the level of detail about every day occurences in remote locations in Western Australia, was fascinating.

Another misconception I had was about clearing the land. Other sources had suggested that all the stumps that remained after the trees had been cut down, would have been grubbed out of the ground with picks and shovels. This was, of course, one method that was used. However in ‘A Fortunate Life’, A B Facey desribes how they would build discarded timber up around the stumps and, when the burning season came in Autumn, the dried out timber and stumps would be set alight. The stump would burn down into the ground leaving holes that were then filled. Of course the stump jump plough came in handy after it was invented in 1876, in order that any roots left in the ground, no matter the method used, would not damage the plough blades.

Every day, as I carry out research for my historical fiction novels, I find some interesting piece of information, that I was previously unaware of, about the life of the early European settlers in 19th Century Australia.

Have you ever cooked damper? And if so, what method did you use and was it delicious?