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Can you bake bread on a campfire?

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Being away from your oven does not mean going without your own bread.
Being away from your oven does not mean going without your own bread.Supplied

I only eat home-baked bread. We are going camping. How will I survive? D. Friend

If you don't die from snake bite, shark attack, tick poisoning or late-night funnel-web ablution punctures, then fresh bread will be the least of your worries. I don't want to put too fine a point on it but Australian Aborigines have been milling grain and making bread here for 30,000 years. You could make leavened damper, which means rolling the dough in ash, then baking it in the coals. Or you could form the loaf as usual and bake in a cast-iron dutch oven. Try to order a copy of Jack and Reg Absalom's Outback Cooking in the Camp Oven online. In this 1982 classic they'll show you how to bake a beautiful loaf over the coals as well as giving you recipes for goat, kangaroo and quandong. Another really simple way is to mix, knead, prove and then shape the dough into a fat disc and then cook over a medium heat in a heavy-based frying pan. The heavier the better. Cast iron is perfect. You'll get a big loaf with loads of crust.

I have been told to use iodised salt by my doctor. Surely all salt, being from the sea, has iodine in it? K. Simon

Listen to your doctor. There is a small but growing problem with iodine deficiency in Australia with a "mild to medium" deficiency in children and pregnant women. Iodine is a rare but essential element for the development of fetuses and a lack of it can lead to intellectual disabilities and other conditions. In adults, a lack of iodine can cause thyroid disease. Interestingly, back when dairy farmers washed their pipes down with iodine-based disinfectants, Australians didn't have a problem with a lack of iodine. Dairy farmers changed to chlorine and we stopped eating a lot of salt, particularly iodised salt. We now have a small but significant problem with dietary iodine. Salt from seawater is processed in such a way that many of the other elements and compounds are removed from the sea water before the salt (sodium chloride) crystals form. So pure sea salt flakes might not have iodine in them at all. There are manufacturers of sea salt flakes that add iodine back during manufacture. There are some claims made about the naturally occurring level of iodine in some gourmet salts such as Himalayan salt but as these levels vary. Listen to your doctor and follow her advice.

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You talked about glace cherries recently. Where can I get Australian glace cherries? H. Sproule

Sorry. We basically gave up making things in Australia in about 1992. At present, it seems we're just mopping up. Try this adaptation of a recipe from Phillippa's Home Baking. Take 500 grams of fresh cherries, 500 grams castor sugar and one tablespoon of water. Place them all in a medium stainless steel saucepan over low heat. Cover, simmer for 30 minutes or until a thick syrup has formed. Strain and return the syrup only to the heat and reduce by half. Add the cherries back to the syrup for a minute then pour cherries and hot syrup into hot sterilised jars. Seal. Cool and keep in a cool dark place. In a few months you'll have glace cherries.

Send your vexing culinary conundrums to brainfood@richardcornish.com.au or tweet to @Foodcornish

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Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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