mystery meat

mystery meat (countable and uncountable, plural mystery meats)

1. (informal, derogatory) Any processed meat product whose animal source is not readily identifiable.
   • 1999, William Gibson, All Tomorrow's Parties (Bridge trilogy; book 3), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 151:

     It was strange how this kind of shaved, basically overcooked mystery meat, which he guessed really was, probably, beef, could be tastier, under the right circumstances, than a really good steak.

   • 2015, Jon Bassoff, The Disassembled Man:

     A few minutes later, Ruth handed me my breakfast: burnt toast, runny scrambled eggs, and a mystery meat.

   • 2023 July 5, Erik Piepenburg, “In ‘The Horror of Dolores Roach,’ the Empanadas Are to Die For”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Justina Machado and Aaron Mark went uptown to sample the savory pastries that play a central role in their new horror-comedy — minus the mystery meat.

2. Any unidentified or mysterious biological material of animal origin.
   • 1984, Dhan Prakash, P.S. Misra, “Light Producing Organisms”, in Science Reporter, volume 21, page 633:

     Glittering of “mystery meat”, glowing of freshly rotten woods, burning of sea, flash of fireflies, light emitted by glowworms and allied organisms during night or in dark had always been a point of great curiosity till the secret behind all these was unfolded by Robert Boyle in 1668.

   • 2000, James C. McKenzie, ‎Robert Melvin Klein, Basic Concepts in Cell Biology and Histology, page 386:

     The set of rules and strategies for organ and tissue identification (sometimes called “the hitchhiker’s guide to mystery meat”) as formulated by the Scientific Method, are a short set of decisions in the form of a branching tree or flow chart.

   • 2016, S. J. Goslee, Whatever.: or how junior year became totally f$@cked, page 99:

     It’s not worth it, trying to figure Cam out—part of Cam’s special brand of charm is the screwed-up mystery meat that masquerades as his brain.

   • 2018, Bill Gaston, Just Let Me Look at You: On Fatherhood:

     Life is the most miraculous thing imaginable. Sandwiched between two eternities, we are glorious mystery meat.

   • 2021, James Felton, You Don't Want to Know:

     The fourth diver was sent to the autopsy in four separate bags, collected from various different locations around the rig, with one miscellaneous body part collected from ten metres above the chambers. Every part of the body inside these bags of mystery meat showed some sign of injury.

3. (finance) An asset of unknown origin.
   • 2002, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, volume 20, page 8:

     Search the footnotes with a flashlight, you wouldn’t find an explanation, let alone an appraisal, of $16 billion of this mystery meat. Concluding his analysis, Walmsley wrote: “If you deducted from equity these unidentified other assets […] ”

   • 2011, Walter Isaacson, Great Innovators:

     Here’s the Walkman killer. There’s no mystery meat. The reason you bought a music company is so that you could be the one to make a device like this.

   • 2020, Paul Krugman, Arguing with Zombies:

     Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center calls these unspecified sources of revenue “mystery meat,” and strongly suggests that nothing like this would actually happen.

4. (slang, sometimes derogatory) A person of unknown or undetermined racial or ethnic origin.
   • 2004, Patrick Regan, ‎Steven Chorney, Paris the Heiress: An Unauthorized Parody:

     Kick mystery meat out of bed. Input digits into cell (you never know), then send him packing.

   • 2010, Damali Ayo, Obamistan! Land Without Racism: Your Guide to the New America, page 57:

     In Old America most families had some form of racial “mystery meat” lurking in their genealogical pantries, but few would admit it openly.

   • 2016, C. Richard King, ‎David J. Leonard, Beyond Hate: White Power and Popular Culture, page 79:

     More than 90% of the revelers are non-White: Negroes, Orientals, Mystery Meat.

   • 2016, Michele Wallace, Invisibility Blues: From Pop to Theory:

     Once again, the talking heads at the news program ‘MacNeil-Lehrer’ have rewound and are playing for the umpteenth go-round their so-called discussion of Jesse Jackson, the-cause-not-the-campaign, the-man-who-can’t-win, the mystery meat in the party’s platform who will blow-the-chance-of-a-Democratic-victory-in-November.

   • 2017, Pilleater, Almond Eyes, Baby Face, page 90:

     I never did well with Asians but killed it with every other mystery meat variety of girl.

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