Another fairly complex preamble. In essence it says that twelve entries are not clued in the conventional way. Four of them are clued by single extra words in four clues. Further, the four single-word-clued entries and four of the unclued entries are “suitably positioned” and indicate a choice of dishes. The remaining four unclued entries are “cooked” (read anagrammed) versions of the main ingredients of the dishes. Finally, one thematic entry can be mixed with a normal entry to create an anagram of part of one dish’s name. The entries are symmetrically opposed but there’s no indication as to which kind of thematic entry. For checking purposes, we can use the unchecked and mutually checked letters of unclued entries to make ONE SORTED YUM.
I enjoyed this puzzle as the various bits and pieces were revealed. I saw the possibility of PRUNES (b11:across) reasonably early and then I spotted CAPER (a7:across) and a possible TOAST (g1:down) and a possible BEANS (i1:down.) This set me off looking for dishes made with capers, prunes, beans and toast. Apart from the possibility of a meal made up of the only things left in the cupboard after a night at the pub, it didn’t seem very promising. At this point I just set about solving the remaining clues. I managed to completely mislead myself with 18a. I had ELOPS (i think this actually works: def: fish, [th]E+LOPS (cut off); clue: Fish after the tail finally gets cut off (5)).
In the end, it seems we were looking for two “Angels on Horseback” and two “Devils on Horseback“, the ingredients variously (depending on which website you visit) consist of PRUNES (b11:across), OYSTERS (m2:down), BACON (i1:down) and TOAST (g1:down.) The “suitably positioned” entries were Angels: NURSES (c1:down) THRONES (k1:down) and Devils: DEMONS (f7:down) and DRUDGES (i6:down) immediately above four horses entered backwards: PACER (a7:across), NAG (j8:across), MR ED (d13:across) and RED RUM (h13:across). The four “horses” were clued by extra words: 18a SKIN:DERM, 23a CRIME:MURDER, 1d REPEAT:RECAP and 33d STARTED:GAN.
The letters of ONE SORTED YUM were dispersed as follows: O(m3), N(f11), E(k6), S(b11), O(i5), R(c3), T(g5), E(i11), D(f7), Y(m6), U(i8), M(f9).
Finally, the entries GAN(j8:across) and the symmetrically opposed LSE(17a) can be anagrammed to make ANGELS.
At this point I’d like to echo the sentiments expressed in the rant in the blog for Enigmatic Variations 934. Why can’t we just have clue numbers for thematic/unclued entries?
| Across | ||||
| No | Extra | Entry | Definition | Wordplay |
| 1 | ANNEAL | temper | (Princess) ANNE+AL (short boy’s name) |
|
| 4 | SABA | old Yemeni people | haS A BAttle (hidden: to include) | |
| 6+37 | TIS | paper | TIS (it’s)+SUE (girl) | |
| 7 | BLUE TIT | bird | BLUE (down)+TIT (promptly) | |
| 9 | CACHET | seal | C(lapping)+AC (before food)+THE (anag: performing) | |
| 11 | ORNERY | low American | OR (gold)+NER[v]Y (excitable) minus V(ery) | |
| 12 | TESSERA | ticket | ARE (live)+S[how]+SET (decline) (all reversed: to return) | |
| 13 | ECHOER | mimic | E (IVR: Spain)+CHO[k]ER (he loses nerve) minus K(ing) | |
| 14 | OLEIC | type of acid | [p]OLICE minus P (quiet) (anag: volatile) | |
| 15 | INGE | German woman | [h]INGE minus H(usband) | |
| 17 | LSE | college | L[o]SE minus O(ld) | |
| 18 | SKIN | ELIDE | cut off | [th]E [tai]L+IDE (fish) |
| a7 | RECAP | repeat (from 1d) | PACER | |
| 22 | RISES | is on the up | SIR (reversed: backing)+ES (IVR: El Salvador) | |
| 23 | CRIME | LEEDS | city | (homophone: of discussion) LEADS (is at the forefront) |
| j8 | GAN | started (from 33d) | NAG | |
| 27 | I SAY | expression of protest | I[s]LAY (island) minus L(ine) | |
| 30 | DEPOT | regimental headquarters | TOPED (drank regularly) (reversed: around) | |
| 31 | SCRUTO | trapdoor | S (is)+COURT (anag: another) | |
| 32 | NAGAPIE | bushbaby | NAG (constantly worry)+A(bout)+PIE (food) | |
| b11 | SPURNE | (unclued) | PRUNES | |
| 35 | NAIRAS | Nigerian money | IR(ish) inside NAAS (pronounced NAICE: Irish town famous for its racecourse) | |
| 36 | ROSANNA | girl | 🙁 Not sure. I can see ROAN (horse) and S(on) but nowt else.
Clue: Girl’s horse son kept backing before (7) |
|
| 37 | SUE | (see 6) | ||
| d13 | DERM | skin (from 18a) | MR ED | |
| h13 | MURDER | crime (from 23a) | RED RUM | |
| Down | ||||
| No | Extra | Entry | Definition | Wordplay |
| 1 | REPEAT | A BIT OF | somewhat | A BIT OF[f] (In bad taste) |
| c1 | NURSES | (unclued) | Angels | |
| 2 | EELS | fish | [h]EELS (rats – despicable persons) | |
| 3 | LIERNE | rib | LIE (it’s not true)+R[e]NE minus E[at] | |
| g1 | STOAT | (unclued) | TOAST | |
| i1 | BANCO | (unclued) | BACON | |
| 5 | ACE | one | [r]ACE minus R(ight) | |
| k1 | THRONES | (unclued) | Angels | |
| m1 | STOREYS | (unclued) | OYSTERS | |
| 8 | THE CAPE | part of S Africa | CAP (let him take) inside THEE (you) | |
| 9 | CREDIT | reputation | RED (socialist) inside CIT (not a gentleman.) This wanted to be CRETIN for ages. | |
| 10 | FELLERS | (Irish) chaps | FELL (knock down)+ERS[e] (Irish.) IRISH seems to be doing double-duty here. | |
| 16 | GLENOID | cavity | OLD+INGE (see 15a) (anag: abnormal) | |
| 19 | LAD | boy | LA (see)+D(utch) | |
| i6 | DRUDGES | (unclued) | Devils | |
| 20 | RAISINS | dried food | IS(aiah) inside RAINS (pours water) | |
| 21 | CHARPIE | dressing for wounds | CHAR (cleaner)+PIE (confusion) | |
| f7 | DEMONS | (unclued) | Devils | |
| 24 | SHALOM | peace | (Prince) HAL inside SOM[e] (rather) | |
| 25 | APPEND | hang on | [h]APPEN (chance)+D(epartment) | |
| 26 | STELAR | of central part of plant | ALTERS (anag: dynamic) | |
| 28 | STRAE | thatcher’s stock in trade up north | TEARS (anag: angry) | |
| 29 | INERM | unarmed | R (king) inside MEN (soldiers)+I (one) (reversed: mounted) | |
| 33 | STARTED | ARAR | tree | A(merican)+RAR[e] (chopping down) |
| 34 | URD | plant | ERRED (made a mistake) (Homophone: talking to) |
One of Lato’s finest puzzles IMHO – a very clever idea, brilliantly executed. Thanks for the blog, kenmac, I too found ROSANNA the hardest clue, I think that it’s AN = before that is being used.
I got lost somewhere on this and registered a DNF, but it strikes me now that ONE SORTED YUM is a ‘gram of OYSTER MENUDO. Absolutely no idea if that’s significant!
DNF here too: a largely full grid but absolutely no idea how to make anything remotely dish- or ingredient-like from it. So very well blogged, sir.
Truth is it was almost a DNF from me. The PDM was staring at MURDER (which I already knew was RED RUM backwards) and DERM (which I couldn’t help seeing as MERD (pardon my French!) I then spotted that GAN was NAG backwards, thus MR ED raised his head and it was plain sailing from there.
Not too bad at all, really.
About half way through I got BACON (BANCO) and after a fleeting search for EGGS I spotted OYSTERS (STOREYS) and then TOAST (STOAT), so I felt I knew what I was looking for. Finding PRUNES (SPURNE) I realised I was dealing with both Angels and Devils (on Horseback), confirmed by THRONES and DEMONS. But what about ‘Horseback’?
Only then did I realise that 4 of the down ‘specials’ were sitting on the other 4 down ones, and (as did Ken) tumbled to GAN, i.e. NAG backwards, with similar results.
Quite satisfying.
PS Sorry – in penult. para. above, “other 4 down ones” should of course be “other 4 across ones”. (V.tired at the end of tough week.)
I did finish this one, but had trouble with the dishes – I was looking for four dishes, not two, and angels and devils seem to be the only two “on horseback” dishes. So the Thrones and Drudges caused much consternation. Neither dish actually includes toast, which is only added (as a base) if they are served as canapes! Got there in the end, but it took all week!
Thanks for the blog and comments. The ingredients were those specified in Chambers.