mystery meat

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is an instance of a precursor phrase "mysterious meat" in 1918.
There are other examples of "mysterious meat", but this instance is
employed in a fashion that is closely analogous to "mystery meat" I
think.

Cite: 1918, A Yankee in the Trenches by R. Derby Holmes, Page 55,
Little, Brown and Company, Boston.

[Begin excerpt]
Open a can of Maconochie and you find a gooey gob of grease, like
rancid lard. Investigate and you find chunks of carrot and other
unidentifiable material, and now and then a bit of mysterious meat.
The first man who ate an oyster had courage, but the last man who ate
Maconochie's unheated had more.
[End excerpt]


On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 10:51 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: mystery meat
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> =20
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>                From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Ronald Butters
>                Sent: Thu 3/15/2012 12:57 PM
>                To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>                Subject: mystery meat
>        =09
>                I imagine that few members of this list-serv who were freshmen before =
> 1958 are still alive to report [on mystery meat]. College newspapers =
> from 1950-1960 might turn up something.
>        =09
>
> I have compiled many links to student newspaper archives here:
>
> https://sites.google.com/site/fulltextdatabases/
>
> =20
>
> =20
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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