The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 5 letter word TARTARE SAUCE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
A
R
T
A
R
E
S
A
U
C
E
More clues leading to the result TARTARE SAUCE
- Sailors with cheek to catch European dressing
- . Sailors use a blast cold store, ultimately it improves the fish flavour
- Condiment a little Italian restaurant served up touching lip
- Pastry, one obtained in a secure ground as a dish accompaniment?
- Two sailors and a hairy man going to church for something to eat
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "dressing" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case dressing = tartare sauce.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.