How a Black Country diet helped Wellington's men defeat Napoleon at Waterloo

NAPOLEON, it has been claimed, declared that an army marches on its stomach.

- By RICHARD PURSEHOUSE & BEN CUNLIFFE

His final battle, Waterloo, took place 210 years ago, on 18 June 1815, and may have invovled a secret weapon that trumped his tactical and strategic expertise; a cheap Black Country meal.

How many readers are aware that many of the British Army at Waterloo in fact marched to the sound of the guns on a stomach filled with a Black Country 'delicacy' known as Groaty Pudding?

As readers will know, the meal (also described as Groaty Dick) was not strictly a pudding, nor was it sweet. It could even be made so thick, like bread and butter pudding, it could be sliced into blocks so soldiers could bite chunks from it while marching, just as Black Country workers would take a large chunk to work wrapped in cloth for their break time.

Depending on the recipe's source, the staple contents of Groaty Pudding are shin of beef (or occasionally scrag of lamb, the cheapest cut), groats (which are hulled grains of various cereals, such as oats, wheat, barley or buckwheat - so cheap it is sold in pet shops) leeks, onions, salt and pepper, plus beef stock.

The meal was cheap, and would cook for around 16 hours in an open cauldron suspended over a fire - the smoke from the firewood, it was claimed, would add a certain flavour. The British soldiers also had - in theory - a decent portion of bread to accompany it.

For the British soldiers waiting in the rain and mud for the dawn to break over the swampy field of battle at Waterloo, the overnight simmering of the meal, no doubt aug mented by anything the soldiers could forage, buy or steal, would have provided some warmth. They could dry their clothes and be ready for battle, a solidifying hearty bowl of stew in their stomachs.

If the groaty pudding was insufficient, the daily tot of navy rum (or gin or wine) when available, bol stered their resolve shortly before the battle.