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A mixture of peas and tripe for an early dish? (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

appetiser

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'an early dish?' is the definition.
'appetiser' can be an answer for 'dish?' (I have seen 'Small dish' mean 'appetiser' so perhaps 'dish' could also mean 'appetiser'). I'm not sure about the 'an early' bit.

'a mixture of peas and tripe' is the wordplay.
'a mixture of' is an anagram indicator (letters mixed up).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'peas' put after 'tripe' is 'tripepeas'.
'tripepeas' anagrammed gives 'APPETISER'.

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for appetiser that I've seen before include "first course maybe" , "bonne bouche?" , "preprandial treat" , "It's served before a meal" , "Relish" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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