A haggis (the “great chieftain o the puddin'-race”) served on a bed of lettuce. An animal’s stomach, presumably a sheep’s, that has been cooked and sliced open, revealing that it has been stuffed with sheep’s organs, onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices.
21 September 2022
The original form of this adage is the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It may seem to be an odd phrase to many present-day readers, especially in its shortened form, as it uses a sense of proof that isn’t all that common anymore, that is a sense meaning test—the ultimate test of food is in how it tastes, not in who cooks it or in how it is presented.
The phrase dates to the early seventeenth century when it appears in John Taylor’s 1615 poem “My Defence Against Thy Offence.” In the poem, Taylor attacks fellow poet William Fennar, a “rimer” of low reputation, who had been accused of publishing under the name of Richard Vennar, a more highly regarded poet:
So much to them, whose harts will not beleeue
But that in Poetry I filch and theeue.
I dare them all to try me, and leaue threating,
The proofe of pudding’s always in the eating:
Thus I haue told thee, why, wherefore, and how
His Majesty did thee that Name allow;
The name of Rimer carry to they graue,
But stile of Poet, thou shalt neuer haue.
Search well in Turnbole-street, or in Pickthatch,
Neere Shorditch, or Long-alley prethee watch,
And ’mongst the trading females; chuse out nine
To be thy Muses, they will fit thee fine.
(The OED erroneously cites William Camden’s 1605 Remaines, an anthology of earlier works, as using the phrase, but it does not appear in that work until the 1623 edition, where it appears in a list of proverbs.)
Over the years, the phrase was often clipped to just the proof of the pudding.
As proof in the test sense became less common, people began to re-analyze the phrase with the sense of proof meaning evidence. But the combination of the new sense and the clipped form is somewhat nonsensical, so the wording the proof is in the pudding began to appear.
That particular wording appears in a 30 May 1863 letter to the Hereford Times arguing in favor of vegetarianism:
I trust you have “proofs” enough; if not, I will give you some of another kind. I was brought up like you to get my living by sweat of brain rather than sweat of brow. I am about your age and size, and now (I am not a proud man) I will challenge you to a week at spade and barrow, and I’ll soon show you the “proof” is in the pudding and not in the beef.
But this is not quite an example of the re-analysis. The writer is playing with the dual sense of proof, using it in the evidence sense when he says, “I trust you have ‘proofs’ enough, and in the test sense in “the ‘proof’ is in the pudding.”
But we do see the evidence sense in this advertisement for a medicinal tonic in San Francisco’s Daily Examiner of 24 August 1887:
THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING.
Dr. Henley’s Celery, Beef and Iron contains greater elements of strength than any known tonic. We believe it has greater merit and has cured more nervous troubles and weaknesses in humanity than any known remedy. Sold by all druggists and country dealers.
And on the other side of the United States, we see it in this ad for a men’s clothier from Jersey City’s Evening Journal of 27 April 1904:
The Values We Offer need no comment. They stand as a monument to our unceasing efforts to provide for the people of Hudson County the very best that experts can produce at a price lower than inferior goods are sold elsewhere. The proof is in the pudding. Use your eyes and your powers of deduction. They will tell you all that’s necessary.
But, at least according to Google Ngrams, the proof is in the pudding phrasing remained relatively rare until the latter half of the twentieth century, when it increased in frequency considerably. Still, it remains the less common phrasing.
Sources:
“10th Anniversary Sale” (advertisement). Evening Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 27 April 1904, 3. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
Advertisement. Daily Examiner (San Francisco), 24 August 1887, 8. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Camden, William. Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine. London: George Eld for Simon Waterson, 1605. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
———. Remaines, Concerning Britaine. London: Nicholas Okes for Simon Waterson, 1623. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Google Books Ngram Viewer, 23 August 2022.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2007, s.v. pudding, n.
Taylor, John. “My Defence Against Thy Offence.” A Cast Ouer the Water. London: William Butler, 1615, sig. C. Google Books.
Tréguer, Pascal. “‘The Proof of the Pudding Is in the Eating’: Meaning, Origin, and Variants.” Wordhistories.net. 12 November 2017.
“A Word with the Vegetarians.” Hereford Times (England), 30 May 1863, 13. Gale Primary Sources: British Library Newspapers.
Photo credit: Tess Watson, 2007. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.