Proof of the pudding is in the eating

This expression meaning that the value of anything is best appreciated by experiencing it dates from the late 17th century. It is not known who coined it but it is first found in Cervantes (1547-1616) Don Quixote, which was translated into English by 1703. It appears in Part I, Book IV, Chapter 10, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” It is doubtful that this was a literal translation of what Cervantes wrote in Spanish some one hundred years earlier, but it was obviously a familiar saying to the English translator, Peter Motteux, in the late 17th/early 18th century.