The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 8 letter word SODIUM CHLORIDE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
S
O
D
I
U
M
C
H
L
O
R
I
D
E
More clues leading to the result SODIUM CHLORIDE
- Content of oceans symbolisedin barnacles
- I hold mid-course at sea for salt
- ,4 Our melodic dish cooked with salt
- Chemical used by cook a lot badly discoloured him
- Main extract from the pinnacle, in short
- Some salt water barnacles, in short
- One going into swirling mud's heroic old salt
- Pinnacle, not long but short compound
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Chemical used by cook a lot" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case chemical used by cook a lot = sodium chloride.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.