Beer Damper in the Camp Oven
Self-raising flour, a can of beer, and bacon. Bread with no yeast and no waiting.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Self-raising flour | 3 cups | plain flour plus 4 tsp baking powder works |
|---|---|---|
| Beer | 1 cup | any lager; the carbonation is the point |
| Bacon | 250 g | or one can of cocktail sausages, drained |
| Onion | 1/2, finely chopped | |
| Hard cheese | 1 large handful, shredded | |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want coals, not flames.
- Chop the bacon into thumbnail pieces and dice the onion fine. Shred the cheese.
- Tip the flour and salt into a bowl or billy, then the beer, then everything else. Mix hard with a spoon or your hands until there are no dry pockets. Rough handling is fine here.
- Shape the dough into a round and set it on a trivet inside the camp oven so it is not touching the base.
- Sit the oven on a thin bed of coals. Shovel a heavy load of coals onto the lid and lay a couple of sticks on top to keep burning.
- Check at 20 minutes. It is done when the crust is dark and a knife comes out clean, usually by 30. Wind and wood type move that number.
- Lift the lid away from you, gloves on, so ash falls off the back.
Damper is bread for people who have no yeast and no patience. Self-raising flour brings its own lift, and the beer adds more: the carbonation puts bubbles into the dough the moment it hits the flour, so the loaf rises in the oven instead of in the shade for five hours. That trade is the whole recipe. Mix it, shape it, bury it in coals.
The bacon and onion are doing more than flavor. Rendered fat keeps the crumb from going dry and chalky, which is the usual failure with a quick bread cooked over uneven heat. The trivet matters too. Set the dough straight on the cast iron and the bottom is charcoal before the middle is cooked, so lift it and load most of your coals on the lid instead. This one needs a cooler and a real fire, so it stays a car-camping and basecamp recipe. There is no backpacking version worth writing.
Packing
Flour and salt go in one bag at home so camp mixing is one pour. Bacon and cheese live in the cooler. The beer can rides wherever, but keep it out of the sun or it will foam over the bowl.
Variations
- No beer: 1 cup of water and an extra teaspoon of baking powder. Flatter crumb, still bread.
- Swap the bacon for a can of drained cocktail sausages if you do not want to deal with raw meat in camp.
- Leave out the meat and cheese, add a spoon of sugar, and it goes with jam instead of stew.
https://www.4-wheeling-in-western-australia.com/damper-recipe.html