Four Little Johnny Cakes

Traditional



Hurrah for the Lachlan, boys, and join me in a cheer
That's the place to go to make an easy cheque each year
With my toad-skin in my pocket that I borrowed from a friend
Oh, isn't it nice and cosy to be camping in the bend?

CHORUS:
With my little round flour-bag sitting on the stump
My little tea-and-sugar bag looking nice and plump
I've a nice fat cod-fish just off the hook
And four little johnny-cakes, a credit to the cook

I've a half loaf or two of bread and some praties that I shook
Perhaps a loaf of brownie that I snaffled from a cook
A nice leg of mutton ... with a bit cut off the end
Oh, isn't it nice and cosy to be camping in the bend?

I have a good supply of books and some papers for to read
Plenty of matches and a good supply of weed
I wouldn't be a squatter as beside my fire I sit
With a paper in my hand and my old pipe lit

And when the shearing-time comes, I'm in all my glory then
I saddle up a horse and I soon scrounge up a pen
I ride o'er the mountains and I gallop o'er the plain
I shoot a turkey, stick a pig, and I'll be in the bend again

LAST CHORUS:
With my little round flour-bag sitting on a stump
My little tea-and-sugar bag looking nice and plump
A little fat cod-fish just off the hook
And four little johnny-cakes, I'm proud to be the cook!



This song is another from Paterson's Old Bush Songs. From Dave De Hugard's Freedom on the Wallaby album (1970).


This recipe from The Old Aussie Food Recipes Site:

Johnny Cakes
Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
warm water to make a workable dough.
Method
Mix well, roll out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into quarters. Put a few tablespoons of beef fat into the warm camp-oven or frypan and when it is boiling drop in the mixture in spoonfuls and cook 8 to10 minutes.


The illustration to this post is from the National Library of Australia site:
Carter, Jeff, 1928-2010.
Drover and cook Azzi Fazulla mixes flour and raisins to make a Johnny Cake damper, Starvation Lake, South Australia, 1963