Results: Clue writing contest 1396: Wiener schnitzel
Another food-related word after last week’s Veggie, which is how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Just as Yorkshire pudding is really British food, I was happy to see Wiener schnitzels as Austrian or Germanic, a point exploited by the winning clue. As Wien is German for Vienna, the name just means “Viennese slice”, and is therefore similar to “hamburger” and the “berliner” supposedly misused by JF Kennedy. Some of you were confused by the meaning of “Wiener” into believing that a schnitzel is a sausage, which it definitely isn’t. This confusion may have been increased by the structure of the “Wiener” entry in Chambers, which includes “wiener schnitzel”, but that doesn’t mean all “Wiener somethings” are sausages. As a similar example, the entry for cock = “male bird” includes “cocker spaniel”.
Winner
G Macdonald, Glasgow
Linz, where nicer feast may be made from this fare
Linz, where nicer feast = anagram fodder
may be made from = anagram indicator
this = the answer
fare = rest of anagram – “Linz where nicer feast” is an anagram of “Wiener schnitzel fare”
This is a composite anagram clue – not very common in Sunday Times crosswords, but not ruled out, and this one works very well, with Linz being an Austrian city and “feast” matching the subject matter. I don’t think it quite qualifies as an all-in-one or &lit clue, but “Linz ... this fare” is an extra help towards the answer.
Good clues
Steve Randall, Reading
Legendary nosh originated where citizens waltzed
This is an all-in-one using an anagram of “L N where citizens” and referring to something else associated with Vienna. It relies on the solver knowing what “Wiener” means in German, which seems (disappointingly) unlikely for many English speakers.
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Giles Tarver, Whitstable, Kent
Senile wench with Ritz crackers has crumby dish
In this anagram clue, “Ritz crackers” is very good misleading content, and as “crumby” can mean “inferior” in the same way as “crummy”, that’s also misleading.
Ciaran Daly, Cork, Ireland
Dish of eels wench in Ritz cooked
This is a plain anagram of “eels wench in Ritz”, with “eels” helping to mislead and Ritz fitting the story very well. For the anagram indicator, I think “cooked up” would have been a bit better without spoiling the surface meaning.
M D Spence
Veal cutlet and NZ wine (sec) lit her up
This is an anagram of “NZ wine (sec) lit her”, with up=“in rebellion” as the anagram indicator. The phrasing is slightly “telegramese”, but the foodie content is maintained throughout.
John Samson, Edinburgh
Austrians serve up this lie: Nietzsche wrong to neglect old German translation
In this clue, the anagram fodder is “this lie: Nietzsche wrong” without (O,G = old, German). The cryptic reading is good, but the surface isn’t as good as the winner’s.
AM Price, Maidenhead, Berkshire
Austrian dish showing a bit of calf and ... crumbs!
This is a welcome demonstration that non-anagram clues are possible for this answer, disguising the food content as comment about female “talent”.
Comments on some other clues
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Welsh citizen’s crazy, eating most of doner meat made locally
This is an anagram of "Welsh citizen" around (do)ner, with “locally” suggesting “made in Wales” but actually meaning “made in a particular area”, which is fine. It’s convention rather than bullet-proof logic, but in most newspaper crosswords “most of” a word is a set of letters starting at the beginning, so the “ner” part of the wordplay would be counted as unfair.
In Austria, new chintz lines were one of the favourite things
This clue refers to “schnitzels with noodles”, rhymed with “apple strudels” in the song from The Sound of Music — a good idea not thought of by anyone else. But the addition of “In Austria” before the anagram content means that the definition is effectively “In Austria ... one of the favourite things”, with the wordplay in the middle — not something I’d completely rule out, but in this case “New chintz lines were one of the favourite things in Austria”, retains this helpful addition in a more orthodox way.
Veal cutlet cooked in rich New Zealand eel stew
This anagram of “in rich NZ eel stew” is similar to some of the good clues above, but unless there’s a dish I don’t know about, “NZ eel stew” is less credible than “NZ wine”.
American hot dog company produces breaded veal speciality dish
Initially I thought this clue only included wordplay for “Wiener” = “American hot dog”, and “company” was a misunderstanding by the entrant, but it turns out that Wienerschnitzel is an American chain of hot dog restaurants. As these are only found in about 10 US states, this is a brand name too far for a crossword aimed mainly at a British audience.
A tasty dish, Helen (cold and tense) wins topless prize at sea!
The surface meaning is mostly entertaining, but spoiled by the need for “(cold and tense)” to complete the anagram fodder (Helen C, T, wins rize) when Helen could equally well be “warm and relaxed”.
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Frankfurter with zilch, sent off-course in Austria
There is some clever deception here, with the definition being “course in Austria”, and “zilch sent off” as anagram fodder and indicator for SCHNITZEL to follow WIENER = Frankfurter — OK as “off-course” is hyphenated rather than a single word. I think this story from Wikipedia’s “Vienna sausage” article is accurate about the confusing names: “The sausage was invented by a butcher from Frankfurt, who had moved to Vienna, which is why in Vienna the sausage is called Frankfurter”. Returning to the clue, the “travelling sausage” surface reading is a bit too surreal.
New client hires top zoologist to prepare food
This is an angram of “New client hires Z”, but like a “first zoologist”, a “top zoologist” is a whole zoologist, not part of one, so it’s unfair to expect the solver to see it as Z.
Entire Welsh zinc production for the chop
I’m happy to count a schnitzel as a chop for the sake of a misleading surface, but I wasn’t aware of any Welsh zinc mining and couldn’t find anything to prove me wrong.
Blend richest New Zealand wine with the Spanish dish
This is an anagram of “richest NZ wine, el”, presented in a nicely misleading way, but I think “the Spanish = EL” as well as “New Zealand” = NZ is a bit too much indirectness in the anagram fodder.
Cheese and Ritz crackers left in north west? This is an Austrian dish!
“Cheese and Ritz crackers” is excellent content and the contrasting definition is good too, but the need to add (L, in NW) means that “crackers” as the anagram indicator ends up in the middle of the fodder, without any reason for the solver to understand that this is going on.
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Intern wiz leches over German dish
This anagram clue makes a mistake — although you can get schnitzels in Germany as well as Austria, “Austrian dish” would be a much fairer definition without affecting the surface meaning.
North London’s capital where citizens become sausage meat
In this anagram of “N L where citizens”, “could become” seems a better anagram than simply “become”, but the bigger problem is that a schnitzel is not sausage meat.
Clue writing contest 1399: Diamond jubilee
Readers are invited to compose their own clues for the word above. Clues must be original and cryptic, of a standard similar to those in the Sunday Times Crossword.
Email your entry to puzzle.entries@sunday-times.co.uk. The contest closes on Monday, June 4 and the best entry wins £20.
Previous articles in this series
1355: ABDOMINAL CRUNCH – Introduction to the series
1356: APERY - Structure of cryptic clues
1357: AULD REEKIE - Definitions in cryptic clues
1358: BLANK - Anagram and sandwich clues
1359: BROAD ARROW - Homophone and double definition clues
1360: CATCH
1361: COLD SHOULDER
1362: CRANKY - Additive and cryptic definition clues
1363: DARBY AND JOAN - Hidden and takeaway clues
1364: DEPONE - Reversal and letter switch clues
1365: EMPTY-NESTER – All-in-one and novelty clues
1366: FADDY - Hybrid clues
1367: FLASH DRIVE
1368: GEODUCK
1369: GREEN-WELLIE
1370: HONESTY
1371: IDIOT BOARD
1372: JIGSAW
1373: LIFE TABLE
1374: MANGONEL
1375: MINIMUM WAGE
1376: NOWELL
1377: ORIGINALLY
1378: PHRASAL VERB
1379: PREACHIFY
1380: PROBLEM PAGE
1381: SABRE
1382: REFERENCE BOOK
1383: SAMOVAR
1384: SELF-ABSORBED
1385: BUTTERFLY
1386: SHIRK
1387: SPARKLING WINE
1388: SUPERIOR
1389: ASYMMETRIC BARS
1390: APRIL FOOL
1391: TERRA FIRMA
1392: TOOTLE
1393: MARATHON
1394: URBAN MYTH
1395: VEGGIE