"Lean Meat" - June 14, 2019

[hcbirker]

I did all of the above! That's why it took me so long before I got it. Also, did anyone else notice "roast" in the clue for 25 across? I hope no one submitted that! (Heidi)

[bhamren]

I happened to notice that Mike posted this under the Monday WSJ puzzle. I didn't see it on here so thought I would repost it:

Good morning. We are on the road today and will post results tomorrow. (Sneak preview, 1099 responses!)

So it means I still have a chance since he hasn’t sent out the winners email yet!

[Joe Ross]

A simpler answer in the puzzle:

The last letters of the clue words are REST.

The last cooking process for meat is to REST it, where meat finishes cooking and relaxes, retaining its juices. Everything beyond that is carving, plating, saucing, garnishing, presenting, etc.

The puzzle title is LEAN MEAT.

To LEAN is to REST. As anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant (or knew my parents) knows, "If you have time to lean, you have time to clean."

[Tony S]

Never made it to shore. I listed the meats from the animals and listed possible verbs (including SEAR) but never thought to look diagonally for further help. Sometimes I blame the puzzle for my failure (e.g. too far-fetched) but not this time -- it was all right there. Not to make any excuses, but the cryptic in Saturday's WSJ probably depleted my creative thinking -- it was a real beauty.

[Commodore]

The Commodore's Lady returned from a recent cooking class involving prepping lean meats perfectly on both sides. Of course, this involves the use of a large new screen utensil now added to my dish washing repertoire. Given the meals we eat in the fo'c'sle, I have no complaints. I did learn that SEAR is the operative technique, and could think of no other puzzle solution. Still, no path to that solution. I thought about diagonals because of the Lean title, but never looked hard. Certainly, looked for the meats: Venison, Veal, Pork and Beef, but didn't see them. lEAn and mEAt both have EA in the middle... hmmm? Surely that's the linkage. Ready to send it in as a guess, but first I put puzzle away for a few hours. It's often a debate, to spend more time, or launch a guess. Upon return spotted Eerie and Errie stacked next to each other, and plodded around that neighborhood when suddenly BEEF leaned into me. It all fell quickly, diagonals, crossing letters, and AHA! Fireworks! Endorphins! World Peace! SEAR was neatly locked in place.
I am amazed at how these puzzles are constructed. Really fun.

[Eric Porter]

I happened to notice that Mike posted this under the Monday WSJ puzzle. I didn't see it on here so thought I would repost it:

Good morning. We are on the road today and will post results tomorrow. (Sneak preview, 1099 responses!)

I've enjoyed all of the posts describing other possible answers and ways to get 'sear'. I predict only about 80% of the submissions will be correct.

Finding the meat corresponding to the animals was easy for almost everyone. I noticed pretty quickly that they all intersect the grid entry containing their animal. The answer had to involve that fact. The most natural next step is to read the matching letters in grid order.

[BrianMac]

I happened to notice that Mike posted this under the Monday WSJ puzzle. I didn't see it on here so thought I would repost it:

Good morning. We are on the road today and will post results tomorrow. (Sneak preview, 1099 responses!)

I've enjoyed all of the posts describing other possible answers and ways to get 'sear'. I predict only about 80% of the submissions will be correct.

Finding the meat corresponding to the animals was easy for almost everyone. I noticed pretty quickly that they all intersect the grid entry containing their animal. The answer had to involve that fact. The most natural next step is to read the matching letters in grid order.

Happy Birthday!

[Toby]

When I saw SVEN and BEE in the grid, I was sure that referred to venison and beef, and spent too long on that path. Then I noticed YEARNING...a calf is a YEARLING, and that false lead kept me going longer in a wrong direction. Curiously, although I looked for diagonals right at the beginning, I just didn't see any even though they were all right there in front of me. Maybe time for new glasses or something.

[Inca]

I happened to notice that Mike posted this under the Monday WSJ puzzle. I didn't see it on here so thought I would repost it:

Good morning. We are on the road today and will post results tomorrow. (Sneak preview, 1099 responses!)

I've enjoyed all of the posts describing other possible answers and ways to get 'sear'. I predict only about 80% of the submissions will be correct.

Finding the meat corresponding to the animals was easy for almost everyone. I noticed pretty quickly that they all intersect the grid entry containing their animal. The answer had to involve that fact. The most natural next step is to read the matching letters in grid order.

Happy Birthday!

Whose birthday?

[BrianMac]

Whose birthday?

Eric's

[debbierudy]

I knew the answer must be SEAR, being 4 letters with the EA in the middle, and almost sent it in with no proof- and also knew that it corresponded with venison, beef, veal and pork - but search as I may, it didn't appear to me! Very clever and well-done puzzle!

[TMart]

Crosswordfiend write up has a link to the really cool etymology of the reasons various meats are named different words than the animals the meats come from - here’s the link:

https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/why-pi ... alled-pork

[MikeMillerwsj]

Our belated report: 1099 responses, about 80% correct.
A cookbook's worth of incorrect guesses, including a few particularly popular ones (any explanations for these?): ROAST (37), BRAISE (24), STEW (15), GRILL (12), MARINATE (7), SAUTE (6), and several others.
Congratulations to this week's winner: Cliff Bargeron of Atlanta!

[hcbirker]

Our belated report: 1099 responses, about 80% correct.
A cookbook's worth of incorrect guesses, including a few particularly popular ones (any explanations for these?): ROAST (37), BRAISE (24), STEW (15), GRILL (12), MARINATE (7), SAUTE (6), and several others.
Congratulations to this week's winner: Cliff Bargeron of Atlanta!

"Roast" was in the clue at 25 across. (Heidi)

[BethA]

I’m with the group that always does the diagonal word search when I am at the point of flailing around for the meta. Pleasantly surprised that it paid off this week!

I first keyed in on the EA pattern of LEAN MEAT, and immediately thought of SEAR. I’m normally a horrible guesser of meta answers, so when it turns out correct, something doesn’t feel quite right! That’s my only beef!

[JJD]

You can also get SEAR if instead of using the letters where the food crosses the animal, you just use the third letter of the food reading down the diagonal.

n o S i n e v
v e A l
b e E f
p o R k

There’s also a STEW rabbit hole (hassenpfeffer?). If you continue the diagonal foods one more letter, you get, in order, S E W. The T is missing because BEEF ends at the edge of the grid. Where is the T? If you circle or highlight the diagonal food names, you see that NOSINEV and VEAL form the missing T.

I knew that this couldn’t be the correct method. But it also occurred to me that a puzzle constructor might incorporate this gimmick — the outline of keywords in the grid to form letters or shapes that yield the meta. Or has it already been used?

In the 7-23-18 puzzle, a Z was formed, and in the 7-2-18 puzzle, an arrow was formed that pointed to the answer. I think I remember a Christmas tree being formed one time.......

Yes, it’s in this puzzle too:
M
EATHERE
literally points to the leaning BEEF.

[ImOnToo]

Really late post...Father’s Day followed by a business trip.
I had the correct answer but could not find the reason.
This was one of those where I was all around the theory, but never saw the path.

To coin a phrase, “Tomorrow is another day!”