A little history on the damper

It’s Australian and has a history – the Damper. Eaten by swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travellers the damper is still a favourite recipe.

1825 – Australian ‘damper’ first mentioned

Damper, the traditional bushman’s bread originally made from flour, water and salt and cooked in the campfire, was first mentioned in Memoirs edited by Barron Field, judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1817 to 1824. According to the Australian Dictionary Centre the name is derived from a Lancashire expression meaning “something that damps the appetite”. Modern recipes often include baking soda or self raising flour, beer, butter or powdered milk.

It may well be, however, that the damper was actually invented in Sydney. Historian James Bonwick ( 1817 – 1906) refers to a First Fleeter by the name of William Bond, who had a bakery in Pitt Street.  The first bread he made was damper.

According to Bonwick, the name was derived from Bond’s way of “damping” the fire, covering it with ashes. This preserved the red coals, ready to re-kindle the fire the following morning. The damper was buried in the ashes to bake. In the bush, it was cooked in the same way. It became a staple for swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travellers, as flour and salt could easily be carried and all that was required was to add water.

There are other methods of cooking.  The dough can be wrapped around a stick which is suspended over the fire. A neater method, and one that’s commonly used today, is to cook the damper in an iron camp oven, avoiding the need to brush off the ashes before eating.

In 1946 in the Sydney Morning Herald, Bill Beatty gave the following recipe:

Take 1 lb of flour, water and a pinch of salt. Mix it into a stiff dough and knead for at least one hour, not continuously, but the longer it is kneaded the better the damper. Press with the hands into a flat cake and cook it in at least a foot of hot ashes.

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Food brings all of us together and there is nothing more rewarding than having a fire and using that fire to cook in.  Fellowship over a damper and cup of tea – it can’t get better than this.

Bruce and Patricia

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