Crossword Genius

Meals without beer, including small hard pork pie (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

falsehood

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

'pork pie' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'meals without beer including small hard' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is found in the answer.
'beer' could be 'ale' (type of beer) and 'ale' is found in the leftover letters.
'hard' could be 'h' (abbreviation used in pencil classifications) and 'h' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'food' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for falsehood that I've seen before include "Has fooled with lie" , "Pork pie" , "Fictional account" , "work of fiction" , "It might be hard to swallow" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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