Crossword Genius

Statistics needing to be cooked? (3,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

raw data

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

'be cooked?' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'statistics needing to' is the wordplay.
'statistics' becomes 'data' (I've seen this before).
'needing' says to put letters next to each other.
'to' becomes 'raw' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'data' after 'raw' is 'RAW DATA'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for raw data that I've seen before include "What statisticians must work on" , "unchecked stats" , "information being analysed?" , "unchecked information" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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