Crossword Genius

For me, cooking a crab in it would be gruesome (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

macabre

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

'gruesome' is the definition.
(both can mean morbid or disturbing)

'for me cooking a crab in it' is the wordplay.
'for me' becomes 'mae' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cooking' is an anagram indicator (letters cooked up into a new form).
'in it' indicates putting letters inside.
'crab' with letters rearranged gives 'cabr'.
'mae' enclosing 'cabr' is 'MACABRE'.

'would be' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for macabre that I've seen before include "Ghostly appearance" , "'Grisly, gruesome (7)'" , "Ghastly, gruesome" , "Brace ma, being gruesome" , "Gruesome, morbid" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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