Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a mixture of powdered biscuit, molasses and fat.

1849		Around the Horn in ’49 in AS LXIII:2 (1988) 114: If mush runs low or dunderfunk, / We eat our fill of cold salt junk.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 133: ‘They stole it, sir; all my nice dunderfunk, sir; they did, sir,’ whined the Down-Easter, ruefully holding up his pan. ‘Stole your dundlefunk! what’s that?’ ‘Dunderfunk , sir, dunderfunk; a cruel nice dish as ever man put into him.’.
1879		G.G. Hart E.C.B. Susan Jane 7: And here’s our darling Sukey too, the last but not the least, / With dunderfunk and old salt junk she’ll give us all a feast.
1883		W.C. Russell Sailors’ Lang. xii: Out of his sea fare [...] Jack nevertheless manages to manufacture several dishes, of which the names are worthy of the contents and flavour. ‘Lobscouse,’ ‘dandyfunk.’ [Ibid.] Dandy funk —A mess made of powdered biscuit, molasses and slush [i.e. skimmed fat].
1887		Independent (Footscray, Vic.) 21 May 3/4: ‘Daddyfunk’ is biscuits ground down with molasses, which taastes splendid.
1892		J.C. Duval Young Explorers 131: In a little while we sat down to a repast [...] fried bass and perch, flanked by platters of ‘dundefunk’.
1900		Boston Eve. Globe 15 Oct. 7: Another institution dating from antiquity is ‘cracker hash,’ or ‘hardtack hash.’ [...] The addition of molasses before baking makes ‘dunderfunk’ of this concoction [DA].
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Dec. 21/2: She earned her pea-soup making ‘dandie funk,’ ‘dog’s body’ and ‘cracker hash,’ and doing tailor’s work on our clobber as wanted mending.
1905		Queenslander (Brisbane) 19 Aug. 45/3: Hash of salt beef and pounded biscuit is dandy-funk.
1913		Outing 62 526: Martin, who had busied himself in the galley, brought in a pan of ‘dandy funk,’ a baked mess of broken hardtack and molasses.
1920		P.L. Waldron Afloat and Ashore 155: The very food consumed [...] and wonderfully concocted messes of whatever edible ingredients are procurable, described as ‘dandyfunk,’ ‘dog’s body,’ ‘Harriet Lane,’ ‘bubble and squeak’.