The food of the herdsmen and aborigines
The damper cooked in cenereIl more traditional and historical food of our quintet, after this combination of products created in the '900, is the damper. And once again it is a completely unknown product outside Australia and New Zealand.
It is, basically, a bread made with yeast, but not with baking soda as a leavening agent and baked on the ashes of a bonfire. Widespread for centuries among the Australian aborigines, has been rediscovered in the nineteenth century mainly by herdsmen, by farmers and by other people who were forced to travel on business for a long time. People sleeping in the open and to prepare it only needed a little 'flour, a bit' of water and a little 'bicarbonate.
THE ASHES OF A BEACON
The procedure is quite simple. The ashes and embers of bonfire are just turned off and the first flattened dough will be laid on for about ten minutes. Then the same dough is covered by embers and left to cook for nearly another half hour, up to what the crust, if beaten, emits a hollow sound. Traditionally, then the damper was consumed along with dry or cooked meat, or molasses.
Today this type of bread is still prepared during campsites (often forked in skewers that allow you to not having to handle the ashes and hot coals). You can find however also in bakeries.
