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Captain’s directive — mix food with hearty red (5,2,3,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

order of the day

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'captain's directive' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'mix food with hearty red' is the wordplay.
'mix' indicates anagramming the letters.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'hearty'+'red'='heartyred'
'food' put after 'heartyred' is 'heartyredfood'.
'heartyredfood' with letters rearranged gives 'ORDER OF THE DAY'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for order of the day that I've seen before include "Immediate business" , "Current business" , "Prevailing custom of the time" , "Something normal at a given time" , "Parliamentary agenda" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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