Napoleon was defeated by an army marching on a Black Country delicacy

FRENCH general Napoleon Bonaparte, it has been claimed, declared that an army marches on its stomach.

- RICHARD PURSEHOUSE

His final battle, Waterloo, took place 210 years ago, on June 18, 1815, and he may have faced a secret weapon that trumped his tactical and strategic expertise: a cheap Black Country 'delicacy' known as groaty pudding.

For that's what Wellington's victorious British army marched on. Intriguingly, the meal (also described as groaty dick) was not actually a pudding, nor was it sweet. It could even be made so thick 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 or a handkerchief 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), groat (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, and 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 their groaty pudding.

For the British soldiers waiting in the rain and mud for dawn to break over the swampy field of battle at Waterloo, the overnight simmering of the meal, no doubt augmented 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, bolstered their resolve shortly before the battle.