Such sauce seems soppy but not very soft (3)
I believe the answer is:
soy
'such sauce seems' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'soppy but not very soft' is the wordplay.
'but not' suggests deleting specific letters.
'very soft' becomes 'pp'.
'soppy' with 'pp' taken away is 'SOY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for soy that I've seen before include "Sauce bean" , "Piquant eastern sauce" , "Oriental sauce" , "Dark salty sauce" , "Chinese sauce" .)