Cryptic food and drink

Duck59 said:
Another simple variation on the theme could be clued thus:

Fruit goes through the mill backwards (4)
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Lime

This is another hidden word. The indicator that it is a hidden word is 'goes through', but we have the added instruction: 'backwards'. So the word is spelt backwards! As is always the case with hidden words, the letters are not mixed up. They spell out the word (in this case, backwards).

Fruit goes through the mill backwards.
 
Kake Lover said:
lime

No idea about the angry brexit one!

I tried to compose one on my bike ride this afternoon. Hope it works!

Who's hidden my bit of marmite soldiers in the yummy Easter cake? 5 letters.
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got it... took a bit htough, around a minute I guess...
yeast
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
tangerine spotted in around 15 seconds in that one, given I knew what I was looking for so to speak

I didn't see the other one because I was using unwrap to mean an anagram... or hidden word rather than 'to discover'.

thank you. Answers with reason and clues are exceptionally useful still!
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Yes. You were diverted by the word 'unwrap'. That is exactly what cryptic clues try to do. So a really clever clue (not saying mine was!) will not be obvious in terms of the 'indicator' or even the 'definition' parts of the clue. But... when you unravel it, you look back at the clue and it should be impeccably logical.
 
There are lots of ways to make cryptic clues, but I would say that there are five basic types of clue. Obviously, there are sub-divisions of these, but I think we can look at these categories and place most, if not all, clues within them.

Anagrams
Hidden words
Initials
Constructions
Straight

We've covered most of these in the plethora of clues in this thread. There are lots of anagrams and lately, we've had many examples of hidden words.

This is an example of a construction, which has a partial anagram:

Salad veg chic cooks featured in broadcast (9)

There is an anagram of 'chic' in radio, thus giving us radicchio.

Straight clues are not entirely straight...they may well involve word play, puns, words that sound like other words, words with more than one meaning or other variations. Spoonerisms are a bit of a favourite, like one of mine earlier:

Indian circle for Spooner to put in the tureen? (4,4)

The answer is leek soup (or Sikh loop if you are Dr Spooner).

I found one example of initials in a clue I made up a while back:

Root's hundred utterly brilliant, absolutely regal batting - for starters, Geoffrey's mother uses this! (7)

The answer is rhubarb, from the first letters of the first seven words. The second part is an allusion to a famous saying from Geoffrey Boycott (“my mother could have hit that with a stick of rhubarb.”)

I don't know whether this brief explanation helps in any way or merely obfuscates...
 
Duck59 said:
There are lots of ways to make cryptic clues, but I would say that there are five basic types of clue. Obviously, there are sub-divisions of these, but I think we can look at these categories and place most, if not all, clues within them.

Anagrams
Hidden words
Initials
Constructions
Straight

We've covered most of these in the plethora of clues in this thread. There are lots of anagrams and lately, we've had many examples of hidden words.

This is an example of a construction, which has a partial anagram:

Salad veg chic cooks featured in broadcast (9)

There is an anagram of 'chic' in radio, thus giving us radicchio.

Straight clues are not entirely straight...they may well involve word play, puns, words that sound like other words, words with more than one meaning or other variations. Spoonerisms are a bit of a favourite, like one of mine earlier:

Indian circle for Spooner to put in the tureen? (4,4)

The answer is leek soup (or Sikh loop if you are Dr Spooner).

I found one example of initials in a clue I made up a while back:

Root's hundred utterly brilliant, absolutely regal batting - for starters, Geoffrey's mother uses this! (7)

The answer is rhubarb, from the first letters of the first seven words. The second part is an allusion to a famous saying from Geoffrey Boycott (“my mother could have hit that with a stick of rhubarb.”)

I don't know whether this brief explanation helps in any way or merely obfuscates...
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This is useful and I understand it all. But I think people may not be familiar with the 'indicators'. The indicators tell us what kind of clue we are looking at.
For example, the word 'starters' in the final (rhubarb) clue is the indicator that we may be looking at the initial letters of the preceding words.

There are many words which are indicators of anagrams. In the above clue: Salad veg chic cooks featured in broadcast (9), the indicator that there is an anagram is 'cooks'. So, the word 'chic' is 'cooked' (in other words the letters are re-arranged) in the final answer. Hence radicchio = the letters of 'chic', rearranged and 'featured in' the word 'radio' (which is another word for broadcast)! Salad veg is the 'definition' part of the clue.
 
Among the variations we have clues that combine the cryptic and definition elements, along with the wordplay type clues that tend more towards the freeform.
 
Duck59 said:
Among the variations we have clues that combine the cryptic and definition elements, along with the wordplay type clues that tend more towards the freeform.
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Those are the ones I find difficult to write as I'm never quite sure how far the parameters can be stretched!
 
I think that the late, great Araucaria was one of the early rule benders. Paul, also in The Guardian, is undoubtedly in a similar mould. Personally, I love their crosswords. They may be tricky, but they are always understandable. I like a bit of freethinking wackiness.
 
Duck59 said:
I think that the late, great Araucaria was one of the early rule benders. Paul, also in The Guardian, is undoubtedly in a similar mould. Personally, I love their crosswords. They may be tricky, but they are always understandable. I like a bit of freethinking wackiness.
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Me too. I just get nervous writing the clues not solving them Araucaria is my favourite.
 
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