Crossword Genius

Savoury mince of game the hotel put out (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

croquette

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'savoury mince' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both things that one consumes for nourishment as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'game the hotel put out' is the wordplay.
'game' becomes 'croquet' (croquet is a kind of game).
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet).
'put out' suggests deleting specific letters.
'the' with 'h' taken out is 'te'.
'croquet'+'te'='CROQUETTE'

'of' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for croquette that I've seen before include "meat cake" , "Fried cake" , "A fried roll of potato" , "Dish fried in breadcrumbs" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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