Strands today: Quick menu
Need a bit of help with NYT Strands today? Today’s puzzle theme — “Heat and eat” — isn’t hugely cryptic, but some of the words are still tough to track down.
Below, we’ve compiled some useful hints for Strands #121, as well as the answers, should it come to that. We’ll start off with some clues, before building up to the full answer for Strands #121, so read on if you need a little help.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for Strands #121.
Today’s NYT Strands answer — Today’s theme and hints
The official theme for NYT Strands #121 is… “Heat and eat”.
And here’s an unofficial hint from me: “In the kitchen”.
If you’re still in the dark, here are some useful words to give you those valuable clue tokens:
- BOOZE
- BEER
- FLAIL
- RANCH
- POSER
- SLAM
- BEAN
Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connection word. Today, it starts with ‘C’ and ends with ‘G’.
Scroll down to find out what it is…
It’s COOKING.
Today’s Strands answers
So, what are today’s Strands answers for game #121?
Drumroll, please…
- POACH
- STEAM
- SIMMER
- BLANCH
- BRAISE
- FLAMBE
- DEGLAZE
…and the spangram was COOKING
Strands #121
“Heat and eat”
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Hi Stands fans. I found today’s puzzle a little tricky, perhaps revealing my lack of versatility in the kitchen. If it’s not the oven, the stove or the microwave, I’m at a bit of a loss. So while I got the spangram of COOKING easily enough, the actual food prep methods were harder to pin down.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, because I actually had to use a clue for my first word of POACH, which was wrapped around itself in the bottom right-hand corner. With that done, I turned my attention to the spangram – in part to divide the board up and make finding the other words that bit easier. I connected COOKING across the middle of the board backwards.
It worked well, and I was able to get STEAM in the top-right corner, followed by SIMMER in the middle of the bottom half. That helpfully cleared a path for BLANCH, a word I was unlikely to get otherwise.
That left just the top-left segment to clear, with three words hidden within. BRAISE came first, spelt backwards along the top row. FLAMBE followed immediately underneath it, which revealed the final answer of DEGLAZE. Just as well that was spelled out for me, as I wouldn’t have gotten it in a million years otherwise (GLAZE was one of the words I found while racking up clue points, but it didn’t occur to me to put ‘DE’ in front of it…)
Yesterday’s Strands answers
Reading this in a later time zone? You can find the full article on yesterday’s Strands answers for game #120 right here.