Type | Unleavened bread (traditionally) |
---|---|
Place of origin | Australia |
Created by | Stockmen |
Main ingredients | Wheat flour, salt, water |
Damper is a thick home-made bread traditionally prepared by early European settlers in Australia. [1] It is a bread made from wheat-based dough. Flour, salt and water, [2] with some butter if available, is lightly kneaded and baked in the coals of a campfire, either directly or within a camp oven. [3]
Damper was utilised by stockmen who travelled in remote areas for long periods, with only basic rations of flour (much less bulky than baked bread [2] ), sugar and tea, supplemented by whatever meat was available. [1] It was also a basic provision of squatters. [4] Baking soda or beer could be used for leavening the basic flour, salt, and water if available, but traditionally the bread was unleavened. Damper was normally cooked in the ashes of the campfire. The ashes were flattened, and the damper was cooked there for ten minutes, often wrapped around a stick. Following this, it was covered with ashes and cooked for another 20 to 30 minutes until it sounded hollow when tapped. [5] Damper could also be cooked in a greased camp oven. [6] Damper was eaten with dried or cooked meat or golden syrup.
Damper is considered quintessentially Australian, and emblematic of early European settlement and rural life there, [1] [7] although this way to make bread was not unique to colonial or pre-colonial Australia. Other cultures have similar hearth breads, and versions of soda or other quick breads are made when camping in many parts of the world, [8] including New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
When cooked as smaller, individually-sized portions, the damper may be known as "bush scones" or "johnnycakes" (also "johnny cakes"). [9] [10] [11] North American cornmeal bread is also called johnnycake; it is uncertain if this influenced the Australian term. However, Australian johnnycakes, while often pan-fried, remain wheat-based. [9] [12]
The bread is different from bush bread, which has been eaten by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years, traditionally made by crushing a variety of native seeds, nuts and roots, and mixing them into a dough baked in the coals of a fire. [13] [14] [15] There are studies into whether this technique of various Aboriginal peoples influenced the development of colonial-era damper, similarly cooked in the ashes of a camp fire. [16] [17] [8]
Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made foods, having been of significance since the dawn of agriculture, and plays an essential role in both religious rituals and secular culture.
Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are staple foods of the Hopi people in Arizona. The Hidatsa people of the Upper Midwest call baked cornbread naktsi. Cherokee and Seneca tribes enrich the basic batter, adding chestnuts, sunflower seeds, apples, or berries, and sometimes combine it with beans or potatoes. Modern versions of cornbread are usually leavened by baking powder.
A scone is a traditional British baked good, popular in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is usually made of either wheat flour or oatmeal, with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component of the cream tea. It differs from teacakes and other types of sweets that are made with yeast. Scones were chosen as the Republic of Ireland representative for Café Europe during the Austrian presidency of the European Union in 2006, while the United Kingdom chose shortbread.
Dough is a thick, malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops. Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening agents, as well as ingredients such as fats or flavorings.
Soda bread is a variety of quick bread traditionally made in a variety of cuisines in which sodium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent instead of the traditional yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. The buttermilk in the dough contains lactic acid, which reacts with the baking soda to form tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide. Other ingredients can be added, such as butter, egg, raisins, or nuts. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, without requiring the time-consuming skilled labor and temperature control needed for traditional yeast breads.
A hush puppy is a small, savory, deep-fried round ball made from cornmeal-based batter. Hushpuppies are frequently served as a side dish with seafood and other deep-fried foods.
Frybread is a dish of the indigenous people of North America that is a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard.
A flatbread is a bread made with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread.
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour. Compared to white bread, it is higher in fiber, darker in color, and stronger in flavor. The world's largest exporter of rye bread is Poland.
A bannock is a variety of flatbread or quick bread cooked from flour, typically round, which is common in Scotland and other areas in the British Isles. They are usually cut into sections before serving.
Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and historically eaten by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora, fauna, or funga used for culinary or medicinal purposes, regardless of the continent or culture. Animal native foods include kangaroo, emu, witchetty grubs and crocodile, and plant foods include fruits such as quandong, kutjera, spices such as lemon myrtle and vegetables such as warrigal greens and various native yams.
Johnnycake, also known as journey cake, johnny bread, hoecake, shawnee cake or spider cornbread, is a cornmeal flatbread, a type of batter bread. An early American staple food, it is prepared on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Jamaica. The food originates from the indigenous people of North America. It is still eaten in the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Colombia, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saint Croix, and the United States.
Bush bread, or seedcakes, refers to the bread made by Aboriginal Australians by crushing seeds into a dough that is then baked. The bread is high in protein and carbohydrate, and forms part of a balanced traditional diet. It is also sometimes referred to as damper, although damper is more commonly used to describe the bread made by non-Indigenous people.
Potato cake is a name given to various shaped potato dishes around the world, including a patty of hashed potatoes, a fried patty of mashed potato, a fried and battered slice of potato, or a flatbread made with mashed potato and flour. In Northern England and some states in Australia, a thin slice of potato that is battered and deep fried may be called a potato scallop. In Australia and New Zealand, the terms potato cake, potato flip and potato fritter may be used.
Tortilla de rescoldo or ember tortilla is a traditional Chilean and Northern Argentine flatbread, often unleavened, that was commonly prepared by rural travelers. It consists of a wheat-flour-based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire or fireplace. It is common street food in populated areas or along roadways and sold by palomitas.
Panicum decompositum, known by the common names native millet, native panic, Australian millet, papa grass, and umbrella grass, is a species of perennial grass native to the inland of Australia. It occurs in every mainland state. The seeds can be cultivated to produce flour typically used in Aboriginal bushfood. The species is also considered to have relatively high palatability by livestock, making it suitable for grazing pastures.
Touton is a traditional dish from Newfoundland, most usually thought of as a pancake-like bread dough commonly made with risen dough. Although pancakes are rarely made from homemade bread dough in Newfoundland, the memory of regional terms still exists in younger generations, such as the British English term tiffin, meaning "small lunch". The dish has a long list of regionally-distinct names, and can refer to two different types of baked or fried dough: the dough cake variant, usually fried; and a baked bun variant, made with pork fat. Toutons are usually served at breakfast or brunch and are on the breakfast menus of many local restaurants.
In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Like other forms of bread, a biscuit is often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.
Bannock, skaan, Indian bread, alatiq, or frybread is found throughout North-American Native cuisine, including that of the Inuit of Canada and Alaska, other Alaska Natives, the First Nations of the rest of Canada, the Native Americans in the United States, and the Métis.
[excerpt from Hodgkinson book]: I have myself known many squatters who, ... were content to live on an unvarying course of salt beef, damper, and tea; ...
Millstones for grinding seeds into flour have been discovered, which have been dated to 50,000 years old.