History Main / SecretIngredient

* Invoked but ultimately averted with the "Secret Ingredient Soup" in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': Po's (adoptive) father eventually reveals that there ''is'' no "secret ingredient" and [[YourMindMakesItReal it's the belief there is one which makes his soup so highly-regarded]]. [[spoiler:It's this bit of information that helps Po understand the wisdom of the Dragon Scroll.]]

** As a gag, the fake recipe Plankton reads does include "love" as an ingredient, but not as ''the'' secret ingredient. Judging by how Plankton reads it normaly, it seems this is a standard ingredient.

* A really interesting twist happens with the ''supposely'' secret recipe of the Pan de Soya Lulu (Lulu's Soy Bread), a very famous kind of jelly-filled soy bread sold exclusively in Mexican state fairs. Unlike many examples of this trope, both the ingredients of the recipe and its cooking methods are ''public domain'' (in fact, the bread is prepared and cooked in front of the public, with no attempts on hiding anything). The twist comes with the fact that ''almost nobody'' had managed to closely replicate the same kind of bread, even with similar industrial cooking methods. This is because the method to prepare such bread are a mix of both special ingredients and custom-made cooking devices that only the owners of the franchise own.

* ''WebVideo/TFSAtTheTable'', Creator/TeamFourStar's ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign, has a major RunningGag in the form of Grammy, the sea hag cook introduced in the first episode and eventually hired by the protagonists. She loves cooking meals with unusual and often unsettling secret ingredients and expects her diners to be able to guess what it is. In the first session she made chicken noodle soup (or rather, ''seagull'' noodle soup); it only gets weirder from there, including such delicacies as a tomato bisque with mandrake or pancakes with abyssal crabs (shell and all). To put a fine point on it, "Secret ingredient!" is Grammy's CatchPhrase.

* A comparable level of secrecy surrounds the recipe for Scotland's favourite soft drink, Irn-Bru. One of the ingredients is known to be ''quinine'' of all things.

* If you decide to become a pastry chef in ''Degrees of Lewdity'', you progress your career by adding some, uh... rather ''sexual'' bodily fluids to the cream buns you make.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Played with in one of the ''TabletopGame/GrimtoothsTraps'' books. A butcher shop's offerings have a "mysterious and forbidden flavor". If the adventuring party takes the wrong exit after lunch, they end up [[ImAHumanitarian on the menu]] -- the unlabeled "meat" is from other dungeon delvers who walked into the processing department.
[[/folder]]

-->'''[[CharlieAndTheChocolateParody Grunka-Lunkas]]''': Grunka lunka dunkity dasis,
-->The secret of Slurm's on a need-to-know basis.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/DmcDevilMayCry'', the secret ingredient of a soft drink is vomits from a [[HornyDevil Succubus]], a [[FanDisservice nasty one]] with [[ClusterFBomb a foul mouth]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' ("Meatloaf Surprise"), the secret ingredient in the Doofenshmirtz family meatloaf recipe is hate. "Usually it's love, but Great-Grandma Gretel had some issues."

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' featured the gang selling cookies made with the recipie of Grim's Aunt Kali. After they prove a success, Aunt Kali gives in and says that the secred ingredient is bugs, ticks and nightcrawlers. People are horrified at first... before they immediately resume eating them.