mystery meat

Noun

mystery meat (countable and uncountable, plural mystery meats)

1. (derogatory, informal) Any processed meat product whose animal source is not readily identifiable.
   • 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.1999, William Gibson, All Tomorrow's Parties (Bridge trilogy; book 3), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 151
   • A few minutes later, Ruth handed me my breakfast: burnt toast, runny scrambled eggs, and a mystery meat.2015, Jon Bassoff, The Disassembled Man
2. Any unidentified or mysterious biological material of animal origin.
   • 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 1668.1984, Dhan Prakash, P.S. Misra, “Light Producing Organisms”, in Science Reporter, volume 21, page 633
   • 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.2000, James C. McKenzie, Robert Melvin Klein, Basic Concepts in Cell Biology and Histology, page 386
3. An asset of unknown origin.
   • 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 […]”2002, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, volume 20, page 8
   • 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.2011, Walter Isaacson, Great Innovators
4. (derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur) A person of unknown or undetermined racial or ethnic origin.
   • In Old America most families had some form of racial “mystery meat” lurking in their genealogical pantries, but few would admit it openly.2010, Damali Ayo, Obamistan! Land Without Racism: Your Guide to the New America, page 57
   • More than 90% of the revelers are non-White: Negroes, Orientals, Mystery Meat.2016, C. Richard King, David J. Leonard, Beyond Hate: White Power and Popular Culture, page 79