INDIGENOUS BUSH TUCKER COOKING
Aboriginal cooking methods appear to be very simple but there are a range of prepatory procedures that are involved. You may have heard of accounts of 'of throwing the animal whole on the fire and eating the meat near raw, however' the reality is there are different methods for preparing and cooking each food.

The most common methods are roasting on the coals, cooking in the ashes, steaming in a ground oven and boiling. Some foods such as turtles, stingrays and sharks are cooked by a process unique to the type of food it is.

ROASTING ON HOT COALS

This is a technique for cooking flesh. Foods roasted on the open coals of a fire include most meats, fish and small turtles. Meat is usually cooked in this way when it has to be eaten immediately, though most bushmen would accept that it is better cooked in a ground oven.

A freshly killed animal is generally first thrown on to the flames of a fast burning fire. In the case of a kangaroo or rabbit, the fur will singe quickly and the animal is turned over to remove all fur. After about ten minutes, when it is bloated, the animal is taken off the fire, the intestines removed and the fur scraped off with a sharp implement. The animal is then returned to the fire, which has subsided to form a bed of hot coals.

If large animals such as wallabies are cooked using this method, the result is near raw or red meat in which the blood still runs. This warm partly cooked blood is a delicacy drunk by men and rubbed on weapons for greater efficacy.

Small long-necked turtles, snakes, goannas and fish are also cooked this way and are quickly cooked through. Meats of snakes, goannas and turtles are well done, whereas kangaroos are more commonly eaten rare because of their size and the hunger of the hunters.

When combined with slow cooking in the coals, the roasting method produces very juicy cooked meats, which have a hard skin. The flesh of the game stays chewy - considered by Aboriginals as gourmet and a as a reason for their excellent teeth.

BAKING IN THE ASHES

All types of dampers, seeds, nuts and root vegetables are cooked in the hot ashes. It is important to select good wood for this cooking fire; many Australian native bushes have slightly irritant properties and some ashes are never used by Aborigines for cooking. Acacias are safe and fast burning. Some foods such as witchetty grubs are simply rolled in the hot ashes; some such as damper and goanna are placed on the hot ground beneath the ash and covered with more hot ash.

STEAMING IN A GROUND OVEN

Aboriginal cooks have developed a range of ground ovens with distinct regional variations. In Arnhem Land, ground ovens are the preferred method of cooking large game. The oven is prepared close to where the catch has been made. A pit up to sixty centimetres deep is dug and the fire is set balancing over the hole, stones are placed on top of the fire. As the fire burns, the red-hot stones fall into the pit, along with ash and coals. The ash and coals are quickly swept out leaving as far as possible, a clean bed of hot stones lining the pit.

Meat, fish, vegetables and turtles are all cooked this way. Sometime food is wrapped in paperbark bundles and placed straight on the stones. Although the procedure for earth oven cooking may appear relatively straightforward, variables such as the size of the game or vegetables determine the size of the pit, the number of stones and the cooking time.

In many areas these purely traditional cooking methods are improved with modern inventions. Food is sometimes wrapped in aluminium foil before being placed in the pit.

BOILING

Kangaroo legs are often boiled, the sight of the bent foot and claws over the edge of the pot is perhaps the most common is outback camps. The advantage of boiling for large families is that the meat or seafood juices can be utilised in big rice stews.

GENERAL

Before European settlement, Aboriginal Australians ate rich and balanced diets of seasonal fruits, nuts, roots, vegetables, meats and fish. All these varieties and species were native to Australia. Bush tucker is the name derived for this food. The Australian continent covers an enormous range of environments - tropical coast, rain forest, woodlands, open scrub, alpine mountains and deserts. Aboriginal people once lived in all these environments and continue to live in most. The particular bush tucker eaten varied according to what was available in the different areas, and was also reliant on the seasons. An example of the main types of foods consumed by Aborigines includes the following:

With their intimate knowledge of the characteristics of plants and the habits of animals and sea creatures, Aborigines know what is edible and what is not, where and when to find it, how to prepare it for human consumption and if necessary how to cook it to its’ best advantage.