“Mean” means paring the cheese (8)
I believe the answer is:
parmesan
'cheese' is the definition.
(Parmesan is an example)
'mean means paring the' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'mean' could be 'par' (I've seen this before) and 'par' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'means' is 'mesan' which is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for parmesan that I've seen before include "Italian 8 across" , "that grates" , "Italian cheese, often grated" , "Dry sharp-flavoured Italian cheese" , "Spearman (anag) - cheese" .)