Sauce Chasseur, sometimes called hunter's sauce, is a small or compound brown sauce used in French cuisine

French cuisine

French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...

. It is typically made using demi-glace

Demi-glace

Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word glace, which used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze...

 and espagnole as a base, and often consists of mushrooms

Edible mushroom

Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruiting bodies of several species of fungi. Mushrooms belong to the macrofungi, because their fruiting structures are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand...

, shallots, and white wine. It may also include tomatoes and a finishing of fines herbes

Fines herbes

Fines herbes is a combination of herbs that forms a mainstay of Mediterranean cuisine. The ingredients of fines herbes are fresh parsley, chives, tarragon and chervil. These "fine herbs" are not the pungent and resinous herbs that appear in a bouquet garni – which, unlike fines herbes, release...

. The name is derived from the French word for "hunter" alluding to the traditional pairings with venison

Venison

Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...

, rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

, wild fowl

Fowl

Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl and the waterfowl...

, and other game meats

Game (food)

Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...

. Traditionally, upon returning from the hunt, the hunters would allegedly pick the mushrooms that they would subsequently use for their preparation.

Chasseur is thought to have been invented by Philippe de Mornay

Philippe de Mornay

Philippe de Mornay , seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French Protestant writer and member of the Monarchomaques .- Biography :...

, who is also credited to have invented Mornay sauce

Mornay sauce

A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Usually, it consists of half Gruyère and half Parmesan cheese, though some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or white Cheddar....

, Béchamel, Sauce Lyonnaise

Sauce lyonnaise

Lyonnaise sauce is a compound or small French sauce of white wine, vinegar and onions served with small cuts of meat principally for left-overs....

, and Sauce Porto

Port wine

Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...

.