Homemade Jager Sauce – German Hunter Sauce (Jägersoße)

A sauce can make or break a dish. And there are some sauce recipes that go with almost everything. This jager sauce recipe is one of them. A creamy mushroom sauce that goes so well with meats (such as Frikadellen and Schnitzel) but equally goes with vegetarian dishes, such as German bread dumplings, spaetzle or pasta.

What is Jager Sauce?

Jager sauce is a mushroom-based brown sauce that is traditionally served with meat. In Germany it is one of the most popular sauces. In German, it is called “Jager Soße“ – Jäger meaning „Hunter“ in German. “Soße” is the word for sauce. It is pronounced – YAY-GER SO-SE (the last “S” is pronounced sharp.) It has gained worldwide fame for being THE mushroom sauce for schnitzel. Schnitzel served with this sauce is called Jägerschnitzel (translated Hunter Schnitzel). However, the pairing of this German mushroom gravy is not limited just to Schnitzel.

How to make Jager Sauce

You will not find just one recipe of hunter sauce in Germany. There are variations with cream and without cream. Sometimes onions are used and sometimes shallots. Often the onions are deglazed with some white wine, other recipes use red ones.

The classic chasseur sauce uses shalottes and deglazes them with some dry white wine.

I like my sauces simple, so this German hunter sauce is made without wine and ordinary onions. As the consistency of sauces is often controversial and up to the eaters preference, this sauce gets thickened at the end with some corn starch. Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

300 g / 10.5 oz mushrooms (I used champignons)
125 ml /4.2 fl oz cream. (Germany Schlagsahne and UK and US whipping cream - at least 30% fat)
125 ml /4.2 fl oz vegetable stock / or broth (alternatively you can use meat stock/ broth)
1 small yellow onion (around 60 g)
1 tsp dried thyme.
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 tbsp butter or oil or lard
Salt and pepper
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (to taste)