History Main / MysteryMeat

* BillMurray in ''{{Meatballs}}'':

* In ''Nanny Ogg's Cookbook'', the section on ettiquette with trolls mentions that the silicatious lifeforms have one word that means "animals" and one word that means "vegetation", which makes preparing meals for human or dwarfish friends a somewhat chancy affair.

* {{Arthur}} subverts it since the food is not only edible, but healthy and delicious. It is played straight in the episode where Mrs. McGrady has cancer and her nephew takes over and makes that's not only inedible but none of the kids can figure out what the dishes are.
* [[EvilChef Gramma Stuffum]] from [[KidsNextDoor Kids Next Door]] served up these type of dishes whenever she's the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain]]. Most notable in Operation: F.O.O.D.F.I.T.E. where she works in Sector V's school cafeteria.

** ''ToTellTheTruth'':The infamous "dog food chili" episode from 1973; the panel was not told beforehand what the mystery meat was ... and only as host Gary Moore is reading the affidavit does he reveal the meat's source.

* ''ToTellTheTruth'': A rare game show example, the infamous "dog food chili" episode from 1973; the panel was not told beforehand what the mystery meat was ... and only as host Gary Moore is reading the affidavit does he reveal the meat's source.

Spareribs were too much for me

** In another episode, Wade analyzed the gravy that a ghost [[spoiler:actually Sensei's astral projection]] used to write a message to Ron on the cafeteria wall. Wade told Kim and Monique that they do not want to know what's in it until they graduate. From college.

* Even ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' has done a gag on this. From an early episode:

* In 2013, a number of Irish supermarkets discovered that a some of their own brand beef burgers contained ''horse meat''. [[FromBadToWorse Later, this was found to have spread to the rest of the EU]].

* When [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Wood R.W.Wood]] [[hottip:*:stepfather of physical optics and SF, granddad of Mickey Mouse and maybe also god of EducationThroughPyrotechnics]] was a student, tenants in boarding house where he lodged suspected that landlady used leftovers of yesterday's steaks for today's hash, as the former was usually followed by the latter. So he left big scraps, generously peppered with lithium chloride (which resembles normal salt in most respects and is used in fireworks to make red flames). Sure enough, next morning he got some hash -- and solemnly cremated it before the spectroscope. After all, a red lithium line is something you normally can see in stars, but not in burning food. Here it was...

* An episode of ''MovilleMysteries'' was about the local ConspiracyTheorist dragging Mo into investigating what the deal is with the new Mystery Meat at the cafeteria... since it's really tasty, everyone keeps buying it and it glows in the dark. After hinting that it's of extraterrestial origin, they find out it's actually made of tofu, which causes everyone to hate it because is healthy and the makers of the meat break their deal with the cafeteria. [[spoiler:Then when asked why the meat glowed in the dark, it's revealed the lunch lady didn't know it did that. Turns out the meat makers were aliens after all.]]

* Jamie Oliver has given a demonstration a number of times where he prepares chicken nuggets in front of audiences (recipe: Take one whole chicken, cut all the good parts off, puree what's left over in a blender, pour through a gravy strainer, add flour, salt and other fillers, bread and fry). With the mystery removed, nobody wanted Mystery Meat - except for the elementary-school kids in Huntington, West Virginia.

** When Krusty Burger created the Ribwich, it created hordes of devotees who followed it around to selected restaurants like GratefulDead fans (including Homer of course). Krusty has to announce that they had to stop making it since the animal they used was driven extinct.

Another common accusation leveled at such foods is that they're made from creatures not traditionally considered edible -- "vermin" like rats and pigeons, or at the other end of the sympathy scale domestic animals like cats and dogs. ''Stray'' cats and dogs are a favourite as they manage to violate both of these taboos at once. There's a lot of CrossCulturalKerfuffle involved in this, which is great fodder for ForeignQueasine.

* An episode of MovilleMysteries was about the local ConspiracyTheorist dragging Mo into investigating what the deal is with the new Mystery Meat at the cafeteria... since it's really tasty, everyone keeps buying it and it glows in the dark. After hinting that it's of extraterrestial origin, they find out it's actually made of tofu, which causes everyone to hate it because is healthy and the makers of the meat break their deal with the cafeteria. [[spoiler:Then when asked why the meat glowed in the dark, it's revealed the lunch lady didn't know it did that. Turns out the meat makers were aliens after all.]]