Sultanas in the Stew

This true event happened fifty years ago, and shows that camp cooking is not all it is cracked up to be.

Me, and three other blokes decided to go pig shooting up around Moree in NSW west, we camped in a good spot not far from water hole that held some yabbies, which we caught, laid on the hot coals and ravished when they turned red.

The night saw me cooking up a stew for us all, a rabbit, some yabbie meat, a lump of beef, that was given to us and spuds, pumpkin, onions, tin peas carrots and whatever I could put my hand on.

It stewed for most of the day on a very slow heat, in a two gallon camp oven, and when we got back to camp after a bit of pig hunting, I mixed up the gravy.  Curry, plain flour and water with a goodly dash of hot sauce.

It was too early to serve it up so I lifted the camp oven and put it in the meat safe, and closed the door...I reckon that a stew heated up the second time has better flavour.

The bloke on the property came down in the evening to ask us to have a shoot on his lucerne patch, as the 'roos were eating it out, and what they were not eating they were jumping all over.

It was dark when we got back, and I got the camp oven out of the meat safe, noting that the lid was ajar, but not worrying about it, and put it on the hot coals to heat up for a feed.

I could hear the fellas belly's rumbling from a yard away, and mine was too...Not from a yard away, it was a bit closer. So, I stirred the pot a few times until the bubbles came and then said "Come and get it."

After being knocked aside a couple of times, I sat back and waited from my turn.  The others were slurping away by this time and making comments on how good it was.

"Mate, that is the best stew I've ever tasted, but I don’t go much on the sultanas." Jimmy said.

"Sultanas, I didn't put any sultanas in it...Dunno what  you are talking about."

Jimmy had piled up his 'sultanas on a log in front of the fire, and I leaned over to peer at them close up.  The other blokes had just about finished their feed, 'sultanas' and all.

"I see what they are, bloody blow flies...Did someone open the meat safe?"

Young Paul owned up, "I just had a couple of spoon fulls when you put it in the safe, that's all."

"And left the bloody lid off and the door open."  I complained.

"Don't worry, Old Pete," Bill offered, "I've eaten worse, and they are good protein anyway.

The next time I coked a stew, the blokes went through it like they were looking for gold.

"Darn!" Said Bill, "No protein this time."

Damper...Special

I just dug this recipe out of the bottom of an old loose file book I had kept from the old days.

It is a damper recipe, but not the average, everyday damper that you would cook for the drovers camp.  This one was for special occasions only.

There is a bit of ambiguity in this damper, but it tastes all right anyway.

1 cup Golden Syrup (warm)
1 cup butter (melted)  Not a lot of butter around the drover's camps I have been on.
1 cup of old beer.  Now I don't know if that is beer that is old or it is the beer they sell as old beer.
Pinch of salt.

SR Flour or plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder, (The amount that fits in the cup of your hand and looks like 2 teaspoons)

Method: combine wet ingredients, which is all of the above except the flour which comes next, bringing the mixture to a dough that looks like the dough that would happen if you had done it all correctly.
This is where the highly techincal cooking  knowledge of the average bush cook comes in.

You should have sufficient flour to be sufficient to bring the wet ingredients to the dough as aforesaid. If you  haven't, then, depending on how fussy the drovers are, you could toss in a handfull of bull dust, but in my experinece it is better to have enough flour and baking powder on hand to complete the recipie.

Now comes the good part, if  there is any beer left, leave the mixture overnight, covering the basin with a cheese cloth, saddle blanket, or whatever is handy, and drink the remaining beer.

If blow flies should get into the mixture, just say that they are raisins.

Cook in a hot camp oven until the damper is a golden brown on the top.

Feed to drovers when the damper is still hot, accompanied by large drafts of Billy tea.

Clear the area to accomodated bloated Bellys.

Don't make this damper for the drovers all the time or they will want it all the time, Ifn' Ya' Know what I mean.

Try it and let me know how you went.

Campfire cooking 101

This is NOT the way to cook in a camp oven. Bush cooks know that flames, as shown, cannot be controlled in heat levels.

If cooked like this the item or items being cooked will either be burnt black or left raw in parts only. Either way this is a great way to waste food.

If you do not know, try this: Make your fire well in advance of your intention to cook. Ensure that you have a good amount of hot coals in the fire as it dwindles away.

Dig a shallow depression in the ground, and place a couple of shovelfuls of hot coals in the bottom of this depression.

Place the camp oven, with the prepared food in it, in the middle of the coals and shovel coals around  the outside of the camp oven and on the lid.

Times for cooking food stuffs vary, and the cook becomes more and more experienced as they use the oven more.  It depends on how hot the coals are and how much hot ember you have stacked around the oven.

You can increase the heat by adding more embers, and reduce the heat by taking embers away. Of course, it is important to have the same heat all around the oven and not just in spots.

At the learner's stage, ensure you have lifting wires to lift the lid up from the oven without spilling the coals, and then inspect the contents, aroma, the amount of sizzle and experience will soon make you the bush expert.

You can achieve damper as fine as this without a lot of learning, or burning, if you follow these simple instructions on how to use coal and a camp oven. Once cooked get yourself a hot billycan of tea, warm damper, slatherings of butter—real butter that is—and Golden Syrup. Doesn't the thought just make your tummy happy?