Thank you to Phssthpok. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
1. Cooking salt reproduces quality of unhealthy food (14)
ULTRAPROCESSED : Anagram of(Cooking) SALT REPRODUCES.
Defn: … due, partly, to the presence of artificial additives like flavouring, colouring, preservatives, etc.
REBEL : 1st letter of(…’s first) “Bounty” contained in(… collected) REEL(piece of/scenes in a film/motion picture that fit into a reel of cinema film).
11. Risky month in Iceland to get undressed (2,4,3)
ON THIN ICE : Hidden in(… to get undressed) “month in Iceland”.
12. City in France I love is full of wealthy people (7)
JERICHO : [ JE(the pronoun “I” in French) + O(letter representing 0/love in tennis scores) ] containing(is full of) RICH(the …/wealthy people).
ROUTINE : IN contained in(severed) ROUTE(a course taken in getting from A to B, an important one of which is an artery).
NINJA : 1st, 3rd 5th and 7th letters deleted from(Odd characters ignored) “ancient” + JA(yes/expression of agreement in German).
Answer: Japanese assassin.
16. Staff return on two aircraft to get Faberge egg, perhaps (5,4)
OBJET D’ART : Reversal of(… return) BŌ(a staff/a long rod used as a weapon in Okinawan martial arts) plus(on) [ JET(an aircraft powered by jet engine or engines) + DART(name for various models of aircraft) ].
Answer: A collectable art object, an example of which/perhaps is a Faberge egg.
19. View through means of hole inside pupil (9)
SCHOOLBOY : SCHOOL(a particular style, approach or method/a school of thought/a point of view) + BY(refering to the means used to achieve something/through means of) containing(… inside) O(representing something empty inside such as an “O”, eg. a hole).
20. Cancel culture’s ending with artist’s exhibition debut (5)
ERASE : Last letter of(…’s ending) “culture” plus(with) RA(abbrev. for Royal Academecian, an artist)’S + 1st letter of(… debut) “exhibition”.
22. Screen repeats a second time? (7)
REREDOS : Plural of(…S) [RE-(prefix indicating a repeat of an action) REDO(to do an action a second time)].
Screen on the wall behind the altar:
25. Touch chap overlapping in line (7)
TANGENT : TAN[G]ENT(a “touch”/a hint overlapping short for “gentleman”/chap).
Answer: A straight line that touches but does not cross a curve or curved surface.
27. Crank mechanical device (9)
ECCENTRIC : Answer: 1st: An odd fello; and 2nd: A device that converts circular to linear motion.
28. Firstly, we cook cereal (5)
WHEAT : 1st letter of(Firstly) WE + HEAT(to cook food by warming it until ready to be eaten).
29. Savagely, he cuts and shortens trees (5,9)
HORSE CHESTNUTS : Anagram of(Savagely) [HE CUTS plus(and) SHORTENS ].
Down
2. Vital not to lose the thread in this corrupt trial by discontented hangman (9)
LABYRINTH : Anagram of(corrupt) [TRIAL BY + “hangman” minus its internal letters(discontented …) ].
Answer: This/a maze of passages in which you must not lose the thread you use to mark your route and to retrace your steps.
3. Catholic priest kept this? (5)
RELIC : RC(abbrev. for “Roman Catholic”) containing(… kept) ELI(Biblical priest).
Answer: Part of the body of a saint or his/her belongings regarded as holy that a Catholic priest might/? keep.
Is the “this” in the clue stopping this from being a true &lit?
4. Unexpectedly get shot and still attack (9)
PHOTOBOMB : PHOTO(still/an ordinary static photograph, not a motion picture) + BOMB(to attack with a bomb or bombs).
Answer: To unexpectedly get into the picture/unwantedly appear in a photograph.
5. Carnivorous mammal bites head off wizard (5)
OTTER : 1st letter deleted from(bites head off) “Potter”(Harry, the boy wizard in the Harry Potter series of books and films).
6. Customs letter’s contents quite complicated inside (9)
ETIQUETTE : Inside letters of(…’s contents) “letter” containing(… inside) anagram of(… complicated) QUITE.
7. Leaders of society contribute investments funding indie genre (3-2)
SCI-FI : 1st letters, respectively, of(Leaders of) “society contribute investments funding indie”.
Answer: A genre of fiction.
8. In river, menace is at greatest depth (7)
DEEPEST : DEE(any of a numbers of rivers in the UK)’s PEST(a menace/a nuisance)
9. Malware hidden by China or Taiwan sent back after infiltration by Japan (6)
TROJAN : TROAN[letters hidden by reversal of(… sent back) “China or Taiwan”] containing(after infiltration by) J(abbrev. for “Japan”).
Answer: … or Trojan horse, a type of malware/disruptive or damaging computer software, that disguises itself as legitimate software).
15. Speech introduces degree of competence following unlimited tax evasion (9)
AVOIDANCE : [ VOICE(sound produced and uttered by a person as speech) containing(introduces) DAN(any of the degrees/levels of competence/proficiency in judo or karate) ] placed below(following, in a down clue) 1st and last letters deleted from(unlimited) “tax”.
17. Controls small moments after ecstasy (9)
JOYSTICKS : [ S(abbrev. for “small”) + TICKS(moments/short periods of time) ] placed below(after, in a down clue) JOY(ecstasy/great happiness).
Answer: Levers that control aircraft or are used to control some computer functions.
18. A storey of humiliation (9)
ABASEMENT : A + BASEMENT(a storey/floor of a building which is partly or entirely below ground level).
19. Rock fragments combine harmonic intros and high-pitched noise (7)
SCREECH : SCREE(rock fragments/loose stones that form or cover the slope of a mountain) + 1st letters, respectively, of(… intros) “combine harmonic”.
21. Residence and travel permit on note (6)
ESTATE : ESTA(abbrev. for Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, used to grant permission to travel into the USA) placed above(on, in a down clue) TE(a note on the sol-fa music scale).
23. Fire curved component for flare up (5)
RECUR : Hidden in(… component) “Fire curved”.
Defn: …/re-appear.
24. Authors omitting to rewrite chapter of the Quran (5)
SURAH : Anagram of(… rewrite) [“Authors” minus(omitting) “to”].
26. Depressing scenario describes batter (2- 3)
NO-WIN : [NOW IN](describing the cricketer who is currently batting).
Answer: Describing a situation/scenario in which success or a favourable outcome is impossible.
Liked ROUTINE, SCHOOLBOY, RELIC, AVOIDANCE and JOYSTICKS.
Very good puzzle. Excellent blog.
Thanks to the setter and the blogger.
As KVa@1
I could add most of the other clues.
Thanks PHSSTHPOK n sschua
ON THIN ICE
Undressing is uneven. Normally, we see an equal number of letters removed from both ends.
I enjoyed the puzzle, but failed to parse AVOIDANCE (understandably, in hindsight) or SCHOOLBOY (less so). The long anagrams at top and bottom were very nice.
The surface reading for ABASEMENT would improve tenfold (and the clue would get a little harder, avoiding a dead giveaway) with the American spelling of “storey.” Thus, “An American story of humiliation”.
15d. Technically tax evasion and avoidance are not the same. Avoidance is legal; evasion is illegal. But in reality a smart tax lawyer often means that effectively they are very similar!
Sorry, should have made clear my previous posting was a comment, not a criticism, as tax is separate from ‘evasion’ in the surface.
Liked ABASEMENT (sorry mrp@4), and loved the two long anagrams: ULTRAPROCESSED and HORSE CHESTNUTS. I loved the PHOTOBOMB photo scchua posted too.
I found many charades difficult. Unknown words and complexity in the cluing meant there was quite a bit of parsing well after the answer, and I did not get a couple of parsings in the end
Thanks P and scchua
Thanks for the blog , very good set of neat and clever clues .
I agree with MrPenney@4 for storey in the ABASEMENT clue and I really like the imptovement .
Perhaps 2d refers to Theseus who used a ball of thread to lay his trail to the Minotaur on Crete and escape the LABYRINTH after he had slain the beast.
Excellent puzzle and blog so thanks to Phssthpok and scchua
We got most of this but were totally defeated by 19ac and 2dn; even after we got them via a wordfinder we had no idea of the parsings. Apart from those two this was a good mental workout.
Thanks, Phssthpok and scchua.
I like the idea of an American fifteen-story building, with every resident with a tale to tell. I liked Joysticks just for the fact that ecstasy wasn’t e.
Thanks, Phssthpok and scchua.
25a – TANGENT – what is the “touch” part? Is TANENT a word? I got it but parsed it as TAN (hit, so touch – “I’ll tan your hide”) + GENT.
jeff @ 12
Chambers’ second definition of tang: “A smack, tinge or hint”, hence a ‘touch’
‘Chap’ = male = gent
‘overlapping’ > ‘TANG/GENT’ with the Gs overlapping, so one G removed
hth
Simon@13 thanks