Dish is awful? Blame salt! (9)

I believe the answer is:

meatballs

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

'dish is' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'awful? blame salt' is the wordplay.
'awful?' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen 'awful' mean this).
'blame'+'salt'='blamesalt'
'blamesalt' with letters rearranged gives 'MEATBALLS'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for meatballs that I've seen before include "Food - stale lamb (anag)" , "dish?" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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