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''Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
''For a charm of powerful trouble,
''Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."''
|'''The Three Witches'''|''[[Macbeth]]''}}
The [[Spell Construction|material (or immaterial) component]] you [[Ritual Magic|need to call forth a spell]] or activate a superpower. It's not as simple as just spending [[Mana]], though. You may need to burn a pinch of sulphur, or to sacrifice the soul of your first born child. Either way, you've got to pay the price before you can throw lightning from your fingertips. If the value of what's sacrificed ''has'' to equal the value of what's gained, it's [[Equivalent Exchange]].
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* [[Insubstantial Ingredients|Non-physical components]] - bottled moonlight or the sound of a cat's footsteps.
[[Black Magic]] often requires [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|ingredients]] that
Sometimes this trope is used to justify [[Plot Coupons]] as necessary ingredients. Improbably specific requirements can be used to set up impossible challenges. If one of the 'ingredients' happens to be the caster's immortal soul, then it's a [[Deal with the Devil]]. A reusable ingredient is a specialised form of [[Magic Wand]].
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* ''[[Warlock (comics)|Warlock]]'' used the body fat of a non-baptised child as a levitation potion. Baptise your children, people!
* You know that song the choir's singing near the beginning of ''[[Harry Potter]] 3''? Taken directly from [[The Scottish Trope|The Scottish Play]]. "In the cauldron boil and bake fillet of a fenny snake..." and of course the inevitable [[Inadvertent Entrance Cue|something wicked this way comes]] finish.
* ''[[Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'':
** The White Queen's recipe for the shrinking potion (which Alice originally found in a bottle labeled "Drink Me", called Pishalver in this movie) is urine of a horsefly, a pinch of worm fat, a "buttered finger" (a severed finger from something obviously inhuman); she finishes making this by ''spitting'' in it. Alice shows no reluctance to drink it, but then, she ''is'' pretty desperate to return to her regular size.
** The recipe for the cakes labeled "Eat Me" that make Alice grow (called Upelkuchens in this movie, "kuchen" being German for "cake") is two cups of flower (''not'' flour), one cup of sugar, a pinch of fungus, worm fat, a tongue of a blowfish, a pinch of thyme, three coins from a dead mans pocket, and [[Insubstantial Ingredients|two tablespoons of wishful thinking]]. This recipe is [[All There in the Manual| only revealed in an early draft of the script]].
== Literature ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'' magicians sometimes need components to [[Equivalent Exchange|make sure their spells work within the laws of physics]]. When teleporting, for example, an equal mass is usually displaced from wherever the wizard plans to get to.
** In addition, we often see witch spells requiring ingredients, such as in ''[[
* In the ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series many spells ''used'' to require hard to find physical components, but as successive generations of wizards improved the spells the components were changed to easier to find substitutes, and eventually the spells were perfected to the point where they needed no components at all. The modern-day characters which the series follows only rarely have to cast a spell which requires any sort of physical component.
* In the book ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' we are told that they had to search for strange components before Miracle Max could do a miracle, but we aren't shown it because it would take too long.
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* In ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'', Precious Virtue's Cold Perfume Pill has a vast list of peculiar ingredients which are so rare they can only make a batch every twenty years or something.
* In the ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', Cimorene searches in vain for months to find some hen's teeth so that she can complete a spell to protect her against fire (she's employed by dragons). She eventually has to get them from a genie.
* In ''[[Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator]]'', the recipe for Wonka Vite (a youth serum) has many complex and fantastical ingredients, some of which seem impossible to obtain. The only common ingredient is chocolate, but one pill requires a ''ton'' of it. Other ingredients include a cow's horn (must be a ''loud'' horn), the front tail of a cockatrice, the hoof of a manticore, a wart of a warthog, a mole's mole, and the four tentacles of a quadrapus. Of course, seeing how closemouthed Wonka is about most of his creations, [[Fridge Logic| this may have been a phony list.]]
* A couple of books from ''[[Kushiel's Legacy]]'' use this trope; the end of the first series ('Kushiel's Avatar' I believe) has the bone-priests that {{spoiler|only get their power by sacrificing someone that they love. The Mharkagir tries this with Phedre but she kills him instead; [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|and there was much rejoicing.]]}}. 'Kushiel's Mercy' (end of the second series) has Carthage trying to take over Terre D'Ange with some pretty involved magic. The stone trapping the elemental has some pretty [[Nightmare Fuel|icky]] requirements ( {{spoiler|infanticide being the big one}}) and the needle that afflicts Imriel with madness (and thus saves him from the bigger spell the Carthaginians are casting) requires toad-bile, lunatic sweat and being left in the light of the full moon (and NOT being in any other light) for a full month. Wonder what the process was for finding all that out.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]" the title witch does not want this kind of magic.
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* In ''[[War of the Dreaming]]'' by [[John C. Wright]], magicians use symbolic objects to compel obedience from the spirits who respond to them—such as moon rocks from the Apollo missions.
== Live
* Obligatory ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' mention. Various ritual spells require various components, some even require the Eye of Newt.
** Although in an interesting subversion?/aversion?/inversion? It is shown that it doesn't need to be an actual newt, since a frog's eye works just as well.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* A number of spells in many versions of ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' (AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e, and D&D 3.x) require use of material components. For standard spells, like ''fireball'', this requires something trivial and commonplace (like bat guano and sulfur rolled into a ball) that one can BS away by having a spell pouch on them. For more powerful spells, like Raise Dead, you're expected to pay cash money to use them (in the form of a pile of diamonds worth 5000 gp).
** Some are even more unpleasant. The components for ''spider climb'' are a drop of bitumen and a live spider; you have to ''eat'' the spider.
** Still, if that sort of thing isn't easy enough for you, there are feats like Eschew Materials (which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], for material components that don't mention a money cost), prestige classes like the runecaster, which allow you to replace expended material components with permanent rune-carved objects (one wonders what the replacement for ''fireball'' is...a little stone ball with "bat poo and sulfur" carved in Draconic?), and others.
*** Why not "Burn!" or "[[Girl Genius|Everything goes boom!]]" on Ignan?
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== Theatre ==
* The [[Trope Namer]] comes from the witches' song in ''[[Macbeth]]''.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has a whole alchemy system that allows you to use ingredients with set effects to make potions with those effects. Or you can just eat them and get their effects for a brief time, even though some of the ingredients are plainly inedible. (Raw Glass, anyone?)
** You still need to have a high enough alchemy skill just to get all the effects of eating it directly. It's [[Hand Wave]]d that it has to do with a specific way you chew it.
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* This is how magic works in ''[[The Sims]] 2''. Spells are fueled by objects called reagents that you can either buy or make for free, though making them takes time. Good spells are made with good reagents, such as dragon scales willingly given by an elder dragon, and evil spells are fueled by evil reagents, such as literal Eye of Newt made by..well take a guess. This is [[Informed Ability]] and [[All There in the Manual]], all the sim actually does is stir a cauldron to create the reagents.
* In ''[[King's Quest III]]'', Gwydion has to gather the ingredients from throughout the realm and use them to cast spells, all while fearing that his wizard master may return and smite him. This worked out nicely in the context of an adventure game, where [[Kleptomaniac Hero|manipulating items]] is always a core ingredient.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]''.
*
** All caster classes have a few spells that require physical components; mages' portals are simply the most well-known. Most other ones can bypass this if the character has the appropriate Glyph.
** The Northend daily quest "Alchemist Apprentice" involves helping the troll alchemist [[Shout-Out| Professor]] [[The Nightmare Before Christmas| Finklestein]] make a truth serum, with ingredients that range from normal-sounding (like Icecrown Bottled Water) to unusual (Raptor Claw and Pickled Eagle Egg) to bizarre (Hairy Herring Heads??) to just plain gross (Putrid Pirate Perspiration and Crystallized Hog Snot??).
* All of the magic in ''[[Secret of Evermore]]'' revolves around alchemy formulas which each require different regents.
* In ''[[Albion]]'', one of your party's spellcasters requires a special seed to be thrown at target. You buy these or pick from bushes occurring occasionally in wilderness.
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* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda|The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]'', Link can gather parts of defeated enemies, like Bokoblin Horns and Chuchu Jellies, and cook them with insects and lizards into potions and Elixirs. He can also give these items to Fairies to enhance his armor.
==
* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' some spells from the Book of E-Ville require certain physical components.
** Gwynn [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060602 found a spell] to cure [[Blind Without'Em|her eyesight]] that required "parts" from some monkeys. She bought the monkeys, but couldn't go through with the spell, keeping them as pets instead. [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060604 Much] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060625 hilarity] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060626 proceeded] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=060723 to] [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=061208 ensue].
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== Web Original ==
* The dark magic that Hekate does in the [[Whateley Universe]], like her spell in "It's All In The Timing", is exactly this trope.
* [http://hellej.elfwood.com/Theres-a-Fly-In-It-.2795145.html This picture]{{Dead link}} by Helle Jorgensen reminds witches: take necessary steps to prevent possible contamination by unintended components.
== Western Animation ==
* An episode of ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures]]'' dealing with a [[Jiangshi]] had what's probably a parody of the third type - to permanently banish the hopping corpse, Jackie and colleagues were required to take a toadstool from a graveyard, place it in the Jiangshi's own left sock (which, of course, it wasn't about to just hand them), and throw the sock into a river.
** That's not a parody, people actually believed that, though usually the sock was filled with rocks or soil from the vampire's grave. And yes, Chinese vampires hop.
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*** There's also those dead blow fish and lizards he uses quite often.
* An episode of ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'' has Fu Dog using Eye of Newt simply because it's used in so many potions.
* In a Halloween episode of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', Patty and Selma are witches, cooking the classic recipe...
{{quote|"Needs more Eye of Newt."
"You always want more Eye of Newt. If it were up to you, the soup would be nothing but Newt Eyes!" }}
* In the 2012 version of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', Donatello tells Michelangelo that the retro-mutagen is made of uranate, anolite, [[Stealth Insult| moronic acid]], and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking| garlic cappuccino pizza]]. Subverted in that he's clearly pulling Mikey's leg, although [[w:Uranate|uranate]] is [[Aluminium Christmas Trees| actually a real chemical.]]
* This happens a few times in ''[[The Owl House]]'', seeing as most of the cast are magic-users. For example, in the season two opener, Lilith attempts to brew a scrying potion whose recipe calls for Fire Bee Honey, Portuspine Quills, Snaggleback Snaggleteeth, and Fairy Tears, although the viewers only see her gathering the first one and having to be rescued from the ferocious bees by Hooty.
** Also, creating a Grimwalker (a sort of magical clone) requires (according to what the viewer can read in Belos' notes) a [[Mineral MacGuffin| Galdorstone]], Palistrom wood, [[Everything Is Better With Dinosaurs| Stonesleeper]] lungs, [[Sea Monster| Selkidomus]] scales, the bone of an ortet, and a sample of the tissue of the person you want to clone.
* ''[[Animaniacs]]'':
** In "Spell-Bound" (which was, incidentally, the first half-hour episode starring Pinky and the Brain exclusively) the first four ingredients for Brain's “Take Over the World Spell” are six lizard legs, two eyes of newt, two hedgehog spleens, and one half-eaten gingerbread cookie that’s been left on the counter overnight. Getting the final ingredient, a red dragon toenail clipping, is the main plot.
** In [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3e2pGHyG8A this short], Yakko provides his own, uh, unique interpretation of the original witches' recipe, with Dot, Slappy, and Hello Nurse as the witches, provided for viewers who - like Yakko, Dot, Slappy, and Hello Nurse - have ''no'' idea what it means.
* In ''[[Adventures of the Gummi Bears]]'', making Gummiberry Juice is far more complex than simply juicing berries. First it requires fresh springwater, to which six handfuls of red berries are added, followed by four orange berries, three purple berries, four blue berries, three green berries and one yellow berry, in that order. Then the mixure must be stirred ''slowly'' to the left, then to the right, and finally, the cook must tap the side of the cauldron to banish the bubbles, stabilizing the inherent magic and ending up with juice. Stirring it too quickly or in the wrong direction risks causing it to explode, and botching the recipe can have dangerous side effects on whoever drinks it. For example, in "The Secret of the Juice", Grammi purposely leaves out the purple berries when Igthorn forces her to make it, causing Igthorn and his henchmen to expand and float like balloons when they drink it.
== Real Life ==
* Hoodoo folk magic is made of this trope. Components can include (but are by no means limited to) red brick dust, graveyard dirt (
▲* Hoodoo folk magic is made of this trope. Components can include (but are by no means limited to) red brick dust, graveyard dirt (perferrably from the grave of a soldier or a child), coffin nails, dried bat hearts, and raccoon penis bones, not to mention various bodily fluids. Much of the lore comes down from rural areas in the 1930's, when such ingredients were much easier to obtain than they would be today (or not: a random Google search can and will turn up various shops selling such items online, many disturbingly authentic).
** Researching hoodoo folklore, [[Zora Neale Hurston]] was told that a bone from a black cat would bestow powers of invisibility on its owner. Hurston claimed to have participated in a ritual to obtain the bone, which involved {{spoiler|tossing a live cat into a pot of boiling water, then leaving it to scald until the flesh and bones detached and floated to the surface. After which, the participant had to stand in front of a mirror and place each bone under his/her tongue until he/she vanished. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma01/grand-jean/hurston/chapters/hoodoo4.html#6}}
** That exact spell appeared in ''[[The Once and Future King]]''.
* Averted by Real Life: despite centuries of tradition, formulations such as the Trope Namer are ''not'' literal -- all these [[Squick]]y ingredients are actually [https://people.howstuffworks.com/is-eye-of-newt-real-thing.htm nicknames for far more mundane herbs and plants], used to keep the components of a potion or spell secret if overheard by the uninitiated (or perhaps to frighten the rubes). "Eye of newt", for example, is a "codename" for common mustard seed, and "tongue of dog" is the plant better known as [[w:Cynoglossum officinale|houndstongue or houndstooth]].
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