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Cooking with the Camp Oven
(Extract out of an Australian cookbook from 1937)The art of "turning out the sod" (Australian for making the perfect damper) is unknown to those thousands of housewives who are well serviced by town or country bakers, or those who bake their own excellent bread either from love of the art or economic necessity, but there are thousands of country women near Beyond, and back of that, who depend on camp-oven bread and dampers.
The very first stumbling-block to the city woman gaining Bush experience would probably be that peculiar, yet valuable article, the camp-oven. Just a round lidded utensil with three short legs and sloping sides, but in proper hands what appetising foods come from it! The chief requisites are a hole in the ground, hot coals and ashes, and a few bushes for a wind-break-or, in a semipermanent camp, a galvanized-iron galley. For accessories add a curved piece of heavy wire, with a hook at each end for fitting into the lugs on the camp-oven side to lift it, a hook to lift the lid and a shovel; and the setting of the kitchen is complete. There are difficulties in camp-oven cookery which only experience can cope with. The variable heating propensities of timbers, finicky winds, the situation of the camp, the condition and peculiarities of the water available-which may range from brackish spring-water to water drawn from dam or spring, or even bore-water full of mineral and soda deposits-the quality of the flour, the dope (which may he good cream of tartar and soda, baking-powder, or merely gidya ashes) and lastly, the weather conditions, constitute a few of the daily difficulties.
But to anyone who has gained her Bush diploma at damper-, bread-, or brownie-making, the turning out at short notice of flaky pasties, crisp brown dampers, bread, and shiny currant-loaves, to say nothing of the real Bush brownie, these difficulties are not overwhelming.
The common damper is a most delectable article when properly turned out. Methods are numerous, but here is one from the repertoire of one who is in the very front rank of damper- makers. Strangely enough, women are never considered as good damper-cooks. Don't you believe it!
First, dig a hole at least six inches larger in diameter than the oven. The depth depends on the weather; if that is calm and the wood even- burning it need not be very deep, but if it is windy the hole should be deep enough to keep the lid below the ground level to avoid burning. Heap ashes on the coals not covered, to retard radiation, and provide a good break composed of bushes to windward of the fire. Heat the oven-lid, too, with small coals, which, like those under the oven should he broken into small particles with the back of the shovel.
Here is the recipe for a damper, a small one: Two pints of flour, 2 teaspoons to one of cream of tartar and bicarb. soda. If you have a sieve, put it through with a pinch of salt, otherwise crush it well with the back of a knife on a plate. Age tends to weaken the "dope" and the cream of tartar first shows signs of lost strength, so thus proportions vary. Too much salt makes the damper waxy.
Fat has no real place in the true Bush damper, but a pinch of sugar would certainly make it a little more crisp.
Milk is something only known in good seasons, and half-and-half with water is the3 best. The dough must be so mixed that when it is picked up from the dish it must be clean and free from stickiness and yet unable to retain any shape - a clean, soft dough.
A spot of fat or a sprinkle of flour in the bottom of the oven prevents burning. Pit in the damper, put the warm lid on top, and put on it a few coals, not a lot, for a damper must rise from the bottom.
It is possible, by careful stoking, to provide a gradually increased heat, an even heat, or a dying-down fire. If too hot, smoke will issue from under the lid. In windy weather hep more ashes round the oven to keep the coals alive.
Bake 3/4 hour at an even heat without once raining the lid.
The finished damper will have a nice brownish- yellow top and on tapping will emit a hollow sound. It is cooled on its edge against a tree and out of the wind and later wrapped in a cloth and placed in the cold oven which serves as a breadbox.
Bread, currant-loaves, and buns require a "hot" fire, but not so a brownie.-"Fergus," Charleville, Queensland
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