Mostly very enjoyable but I was 40 minutes in and missing two letters from the grid when I realised I was looking for an answer I probably wouldn’t know, so I cut my losses and used aids to finish things off.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Appropriate how birds returned (6) |
| ASSUME – AS (how) then EMUS (birds) reversed [returned] | |
| 4 | What’s Oscar carried back in preserve bottle? (8) |
| JEROBOAM – O (Oscar) + BORE (carried) reversed [back] contained by [in] J~AM (preserve). Roughly 4 normal bottles. | |
| 10 | Creature natural at jumping (9) |
| TARANTULA – Anagram [jumping] of NATURAL AT | |
| 11 | City lover from Scotland surrounded by noise (5) |
| DIJON – JO (lover from Scotland) contained [surrounded] by DI~N (noise) | |
| 12 | Food processor gives diet out by leaflet (9,5) |
| DIGESTIVE TRACT – Anagram [out] of GIVES DIET, then TRACT (leaflet) | |
| 14 | Pottery line coming in handy (5) |
| DELFT – L (line) contained by [coming in] DEFT (handy). Been there, bought some pottery. | |
| 16 | Dingy tee I transformed with this? (3-6) |
| TIE-DYEING – Anagram [ transformed] of DINGY TEE I | |
| 18 | Debacle minutes after agent for change nearly admits Conservative (9) |
| CATACLYSM – CATA~LYS{t} (agent for change) [nearly] contains [admits] C (Conservative), then M (minutes) | |
| 20 | Give birth with assistance (5) |
| WHELP – W (with), HELP (assistance) | |
| 21 | The giving of second award for sketch, perhaps (14) |
| REPRESENTATION – RE-PRESENTATION (the giving of second award) | |
| 25 | Hatred banning leader from platform (5) |
| ODIUM – {p}ODIUM (platform) [banning leader from…] | |
| 26 | Desire to cease cooking wheat in chef’s creation (5,4) |
| DEATH WISH – Anagram [cooking] of WHEAT contained by [in] D~ISH (chef’s creation) | |
| 27 | Intend to stuff, say, great vegetable (8) |
| EGGPLANT – PLAN (intend) contained by [to stuff] EG (say) + G~T (great) | |
| 28 | Garment belonging to Glaswegian bachelor smells (6) |
| BREEKS – B (bachelor), REEKS (smells) – trousers / breeches | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Learner without instruction went to work under car (10) |
| AUTODIDACT – AUTO (car), DID ACT (went to work) | |
| 2 | Tiny excerpt from Pilgrim’s Progress (5) |
| SPROG – Hidden in [excerpt from] {Pilgrim’}S PROG{ress}. ‘Tiny’ is a noun here. | |
| 3 | Disapproves of alien attitude (7) |
| MINDSET – MINDS (disapproves of), ET (alien) | |
| 5 | Eliminate onset of Americanisation in language (5) |
| ERASE – A{mericanisation} [ onset of…] contained by [in] ER~SE (language) | |
| 6 | Controlled German article seized by French airport (7) |
| ORDERLY – DER (German article) contained [seized] by OR~LY (French airport) | |
| 7 | Fair goal (9) |
| OBJECTIVE – Two meanings | |
| 8 | Times piece introduces language of island race (4) |
| MANX – MAN (chess piece), X (times) | |
| 9 | Internal lake splits dock in an odd way (8) |
| QUAINTLY – INT (internal) + L (lake) contained by [splits] QUA~Y (dock) | |
| 13 | Plant cookware in stove so (10) |
| AGAPANTHUS – PAN (cookware) contained by [in] AGA (stove) ~THUS (so). Aka: African lily. | |
| 15 | Latvian band including English characters (9) |
| LETTERING – LETT (Latvian) ~ RING (band) containing [including] E (English) | |
| 17 | Cooked mean melt with this? (8) |
| EMMENTAL – Anagram [cooked] of MEAN MELT. Cheese. | |
| 19 | Artist dressed in light brown or dark brown (7) |
| CARAMEL – RA (artist) contained by [dressed in] CA~MEL (light brown) | |
| 20 | Erode article, erode all round (7) |
| WEATHER – WEA~R (erode) containing [all round] THE (article) | |
| 22 | American transporter used van failing to start (5) |
| SEDAN – {u}SED + {v}AN [failing to start]. US word for a saloon car. | |
| 23 | Organic compound one is digging up? (5) |
| IMINE – I MINE (one is digging up). As mentioned in the intro I realised I wouldn’t know this word so I’m glad I gave up on it and used aids. ‘Is’ is superfluous to the wordplay and led me to believe the answer would contain an S, which proved a distraction. But for that I might just have stood a chance of spotting how the clue worked and arriving the correct solution. | |
| 24 | Pizza shunned by California region (4) |
| ZONE – {Cal}ZONE (pizza) [shunned by California] | |
19:08 but failed on IMINE. Very good fun. Thanks Jack.
The abbreviation for California is Ca. And caramel is light brown.
caramel /kar’ə-mel/
noun
A dark-brown substance produced from sugar by loss of water on heating, used in colouring and flavouring food and drink
A chewy sweet made with sugar, butter, etc
adjective
Made of or containing caramel
Of the colour of caramel
Cal.
abbrev
California (US state)
Thanks for playing! Better luck next time
The dark brown substance is the result of the caramelisation process. But when you add cream, and butter, you get to the finished caramel which is the lighter colour. That’s what goes in your cake fillings, toppings and chocolate centres. The dark brown is just your base material, and its existence in that form is brief (and barely edible).
I successfully completed the crossword. But the attractive light brown colour of my caramel creams and caramel latte which accompanied my solve, did cause me to ponder on that clue just a teeny bit.
Surprise, surprise, failed with IMINE.