q4

[dubdobdee]

4.
i: What, confusingly, is not sincomorphic?
ii: What was served at all meals at the Try Pots?
iii: What soup was liked by the offal-loving Bloom?
iv: What was stored in flat wooden cases of 36 slabs apiece?
v: What did the hairy twin receive in exchange for his inheritance?
vi: What was Master Linklater cooking when Moniplies demanded to see him?
vii: What did Phemie offer Jaikie if he came indoors about midday?
viii: What salivary delicacy is popular in the Far East?
ix: Who sang of Beautiful Soup, so rich and green?
x: What did the Bucket family have for supper?

COMPLETED:
THE THEME IS SOUP!
i: CULLEN SKINK (made with haddock not lizards) is neither scincomorphic nor (via Guardian/KWQ typo) sincomorphic) (via jeff_worrell)
ii: is CHOWDER, from Moby Dick (guessed by jauntyalan, google-confirmed by dubdobdee
iii: is from Joyce’s Ulysses, but not yet identified, except that it’s probably not KIDNEY SOUP (tho Bloom does like kidneys) (explored by carsmilesteve and marnameow)
iv: is PORTABLE SOUP, from Patrick O’Brian’s The Thirteen-Gun Salute (googled by jeff_worrell)
v: this is the Bible’s ESAU (= “an hairy man”) swapped a MESS OF POTAGE for his inheritance from his brother Jacob (known by dubdobdee and sbp)
vi: COCK-A-LEEKIE, from The Fortunes of Nigel, by Sir Walter Scott (googled by jeff_worrell)
vii: is presumably some kind of soup (not yet identified), featuring in Buchan’s Huntingtower (explored by katstevens)
viii: guessed but not confirmed: BIRD’S NEST SOUP (primary ingredient = spit) (proposed by dubdobdee)
ix: this is the MOCK TURTLE from Alice (known by dubdobdee)
x: guessed but not confirmed: is BONE or BREAD or CABBAGE SOUP, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (proposed by jauntyalan and kat)

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i think the guy who sets it will not be satisfied until he can change the name to KING BUCHAN'S QUIZ

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

or to the Aubrey-Maturin College Quiz (either iv. or vi. are possibilities in that direction, or perhaps he's saving them for a later round…)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Bingo! It's iv.

From The Thirteen-Gun Salute, by Patrick O'Brian, p. 29:
[i]...he went on to check their surgical instruments, the grim saws, retractors, artery-hooks, gags, leather-covered chains; and then the more massive substances such as portable soup, stored in flat wooden cases of thirty-six slabs apiece…[/i]

Apparently portable soup features regularly in his books.