Damper is a true Australian icon of bush cooking and backyard barbecuing. It’s a heritage food, its roots going back to the swagmen of our early pioneer days. Usually cooked in the dying embers of an open fire or in a bush oven (a cast-iron pot), it’s easily the simplest bread you could make on a barbecue.
The dough is made from the most basic ingredients that a traveller could carry: self-raising flour, lard or butter (more often lard, as it would keep better, and it produces the best results), salt, sugar, milk and water. As a kid, I always made damper when I went camping, but more often than not I was more interested in making it than eating it — with kids, it’s always more about the journey than the destination.
The basic dough can be improved with the addition of herbs, olives or just about anything that takes your fancy. You can even make Damper doughnuts, stuffed with marshmallows.