History Main / MysteryMeat

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* ''Film/TheGreatOutdoors'': Roman refers to hot dogs as being made from "lips and assholes". In the next scene, when raccoons raid the cabin's trash, one of the raccoons says the exact same thing.

* Played for horror in ''Anime/YamishibaiJapaneseGhostStories'' with "Ominie-San", a mysterious purple glop that gives off black fumes that becomes inexplicably popular for lunch at a local school, and quickly spreads to the rest of the town. It also ''moves''. The short ends before it's true nature can be explained, but is implied to be some sort of brainwashing, as the main character becomes ravenous for it as well despite her earlier disgust.

** Another time Jon and the pets are on vacation and the local delicacy is something called Unguah. Exactly what an Unguah is is never specified, but judging by the cooks unhappy reaction to seeing a live one in his kitchen, it's probably some sort of vermin.

%%* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': You really ''wouldn't'' [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-06-07 want to know what the mystery meat is]].%%Weblinks are not examples.

* ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'': The cafeteria sells "slop", a grey goo that, according to the lunch lady, contains "herbs and spices and salt and about 89 percent the principal's secret ingredient". Whatever that secret ingredient is, it comes from [[spoiler:a strange machine in the principal's secret lab, meaning it's probably not recommended for consumption]].

--->'''Paige''': Wasn't today's dish supposed to be pasta with white sauce?\\
'''Lunch Lady''': Change of plans. We're serving pasta with red sauce today since Diane had a little accident with the meat cutter.\\

'''Nicole''': Did you have that pasta today? It had an odd metallic taste...

* ''Literature/WaysideSchool'' has a lunch lady who can cook very well - if she's only cooking for one or two, but the more food she cooks, the worse it tastes. It's said that she cooks 500 meals, and only two students at a time are willing to eat it, and half of those who eat it go home sick. Mystery Meat is only ''part'' of the dishes she serves. Notably, as bad as it tastes, it can cause a person to spontaneously kiss someone and leave them with no memory of the act.

** In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E12DoublemeatPalace Doublemeat Palace]]", Buffy starts working at [[BurgerFool the eponymous fast food place]] and finds [[HumanResources a human finger in the meat grinder]], leading her to believe the [[HumanResources burgers are made from people]]. This ends up being a bait-and-switch: the finger was there because a demon ate one of the workers because he tasted like the burgers, but the meat itself was more mundane. [[spoiler:Except that it wasn't meat at all - it was veggieburger ''flavored'' with beef and chicken fat. Fattening cardboard. Charming.]]

* On an installment of ''Series/NoReservations'' set in a backwoods joint somewhere in southeast Asia, the usually up for anything Anthony Bourdain was visibly nervous about meat from small animal. Tony's companion spoke very poor English and referred to it as "squeezil", causing Tony to have horrifying images of what it might be. [[spoiler:Apparently, it's porcupine - after figuring it out, Tony was visibly relieved.]]

* {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} sketch show ''Series/WelcomeFreshmen'', being about high school life, naturally covered this one, which included a glam rock song called - you guessed it - "Mystery Meat".

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'': The description of the Raw Meat Dumpling notes that it's "not for those who prefer to know the origin of their meats." [[spoiler: Environmental clues heavily imply [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies it's human meat]].]]

** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has a quest ''named'' "Mystery Meat"; Longneck Lukowski's Cannery is a pre-war cannery that survived the nuclear apocalypse mostly unscathed and was eventually repaired and reopened by Theodore Collins, who's made a very profitable business for himself selling canned meat to the rest of the Commonwealth... except as of late, there's been reports of people getting sick from his meat. While exploring the factory, the player finds that Collins product seems to consist of a mix of Radstag, Molerat and even Radroach, kind of gross but perfectly edible [[spoiler: until they reach the basement, where they were told not to go. Turns out that Collins had difficulty getting enough meat to meet the unexpected demand, and when one of the basement walls collapsed, letting in a horde of Feral Ghouls, he decided to start using their flesh as filler. The customers are getting sick because they've unknowingly been eating heavily irradiated human flesh. After escaping the basement, the player is forced to kill Collins, who's willing to resort to murder to hide his secret.]]

* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' makes mention of ADVENT Burgers, served by the [[VichyEarth alien regime]] in their [[GildedCage shining city centers]]. Everyone who's had one agrees they're an ImpossiblyDeliciousFood, even though no one knows what they're made from - [[FutureFoodIsArtificial "reconstituted protein"]], sure, but from what? The aliens have banned the keeping of pets and livestock, and have spent the last twenty years eradicating Earth's indigenous animals, to the point that the rumor of a pack of wild dogs takes days to follow up on. And, of course, their master plan makes heavy use of HumanResources... The sequel mentioning a move to ArtificialMeat further highlights that there was ''some'' natural source used during the occupation.

--> '''Jay''': Fish, please...
--> '''Stewardess''': No, I mean, what is this? Chicken or fish? *the camera pans down, revealing that the dinner in question looks like an unholy crossbreed of a fish and a bird*

* Jamie Oliver has given a demonstration a number of times where he prepares low-grade (read: MetaphoricallyTrue version) 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.

* ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'': Early in the 1997-1998 season, there was a category "It Takes Like Chicken", where contestants had to identify unusual types of meat, such as those from snakes, frogs, and alligators.

Another common accusation leveled at such foods is that they're made from creatures not traditionally considered edible: vermin like [[ReducedToRatburgers rats]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squab_as_food (these days)]] pigeons; domestic animals like cats and dogs; or, worse yet, stray cats and dogs, which are verminous and domestic at once; or even [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies missing persons]]. ([[YourNormalIsOurTaboo Opinions vary]] [[ValuesDissonance as to what creatures]] [[ForeignQueasine are considered edible]] -- sometimes even with the passage of time, as with pigeons no longer being edible in the US.) If someone finds out what they ate, expect IAteWhat as a response.

* The titular restaurant of ''WesternAnimation/Bob'sBurgers'' doesn't actually go in for this (Bob actually takes it as a point of pride to only procure finest quality beef, despite the expense to his struggling business), but his [[BrattyHalfPint kids]] often have fun acting as though it is, and the malicious health inspector will try to accuse him of such. One episode actually featured Bob trying out a cheaper meat supplier, who turned out to be illegally dealing in horse. [[SitcomArchNemesis Jimmy Pesto]] also sometimes alludes to using it in his own restaurant, as part of generally cheaping out on quality.

Anime will be just the opposite of this. Most animes that deal with schooling will portray school cafeterias with a quite high standard of food--and often at least one item so good that students have to race to get there before it sells out.

* ''WebVideo/LifeOfBoris'': Deconstructed. Boris manages to perfectly recreate "Doktorskaya Kolbasa" (Communist bologna), but the only ingredients actually going into the aggressively pink meat foam are pork, ice water and minimal amounts of basic seasoning.

* ''WebVideo/LifeOfBoris'': Deconstructed. Boris manages to perfectly recreate "Doktorskaya Kielbasa" (Communist bologna), but the only ingredients actually going into the aggressively pink meat foam are pork, ice water and minimal amounts of basic seasoning.