Cook various meats (5)
I believe the answer is:
steam
'cook' is the definition.
(I know that steam is a more specific form of the action cook)
'various meats' is the wordplay.
'various' is an anagram indicator.
'meats' with letters rearranged gives 'STEAM'.
(Other definitions for steam that I've seen before include "Vaporised water" , "Sort of water" , "Invisible gas from boiling water" , "Cook" , "fume" .)