Crossword Genius

Can we hear stew cooking? It's a life-saver (3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

mae west

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'a life-saver' is the definition.
(Mae West is an informal name for a life jacket)

'can we hear stew cooking? it's' is the wordplay.
'can' becomes 'ma' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hear' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'stew' indicates anagramming the letters.
'cooking?' indicates anagramming the letters (letters cooked up into a new form).
'we' is a homophone of 'wee'.
'wee' with letters rearranged gives 'ewe'.
'ts' with letters rearranged gives 'st'.
'ma'+'ewe'+'st'='MAE WEST'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mae west that I've seen before include "buoyancy aid when dipping" , "Actress - life-jacket" , "Life jacket; film star" , "I acted" , "Ex-player" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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