Could a mutt, led astray, do this to the milk? (6)
I believe the answer is:
curdle
'milk?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to change as well as being verbs in their base form.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'could a mutt led astray do this to' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'mutt' could be 'cur' (synonyms) and 'cur' is present in the answer.
an anagram of 'led' is 'dle' which is located in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for curdle that I've seen before include "Of milk, turn sour and form thick substance" , "Go off like milk" , "Make blood do this to fill with horror" , "Cause (milk) to coagulate" , "Turn into thick lumps (of milk etc)" .)