Listener 4050: Recipe by Parsnip

[midazolam]

"Pleasant" debut by Parsnip and great for newcomers to the Listener world. One of the easiest of the year so far with several anagrams to get started. [email protected] if you want a go

[emcee]

Quite a challenging puzzle. A nice mix of clues but I found some very difficult; particularly those of the "ingredient" variety. The endgame I found OK and without ambiguity.

I'm not overly happy with the clue for 6d -- surely "ox" is redundant?

[milford15]

Thanks Mysterons and jacinth. Getting closer now - this might just be the first Listener i actually get finished. So close, so many times and was getting disheartened!

[uncletony]

Emcee, "ox" is required in the clue to 6 down - you may not be seeing the correct wordplay. It certainly took me a while to see what was going on - perhaps not the cleanest of clues. I think Mysterons is a little off-target in suggesting it has anything to do with Geneva.

[starwalker]

Just the kind of puzzle to get a few more addicted. All in all, a pleasant debut.

[cluelessJoe]

I'm with the general consensus on this one .. a nice debut, some easy early entries, a decent number of very good clues some of which were a devil to unravel, and just a couple of slightly laboured ones - maybe forgiveable because of the need to accommodate the recipe theme throughout. I ended up guessing names then back-solving a couple of the ingredients, but a fair and unambiguous endgame. Thanks Parsnip

[kwyjibo]

I thought finding the answers to the ingredient clues pretty tough going, surprised to see the puzzle being described as straightforward although the normal clues generally were. One of the 'ingredients' in the recipe I found doesn't seem to appear among the answers to the ingredient clues.

[perseverer]

Kwyjibo - I reckon I have now found at least 6 variations of the recipe, essentially all the same, except for the one ingredient, and Parsnip did point out the existence of different versions of the recipe in the preamble. Naturally the one Parsnip used was not among my initial finds!

[emcee]

Thanks uncletony. I think there's no quibble about the answer to 6d given the generous checking -- as to how one arrives at it is another matter! I'll have another look as it does seem I'm overlooking something.

[Mysterons]

Perhaps 'conventional filler' = UR, which would definitely make this one of the strained clues that cJ refers to above.

[turnerjmw]

Mysterons, that was how I parsed the clue, for what it's worth

[rabet]

Why would "conventional filler" be UR?

[perseverer]

Rabet- advice which far too often I forget myself - when in doubt, check it in Chambers.

[Archie1962]

The thing I find with the Listener crossword and the bar system (as opposed to blacked out squares) is that by the end most clues are confirmed by each other and can be very little else, even if you can't see the wordplay. Especially in Recipe, where the answers go into the grid unmodified and with no clashes.

[Clamzy]

So in this case, without understanding the wordplay, would you go for CORA, DORA or NORA?