Somebody at Simply Scratch (originally adapted from a Gordon Ramsay recipe, then beaten into submission over a decade of weeknight cooking) decided that the correct way to handle a freezer full of venison was to crisp a pile of thick-cut bacon, sear three pounds of deer shoulder in the drippings until it looks like the bottom of a campfire, and then bury the whole thing under wine, bone broth, turnips, mushrooms, and an entire fistful of rainbow peppercorns. Then it goes in the oven for two hours to think about what it’s done.
Then comes the move that gets you side-eyed at the table: one ounce of 70% dark chocolate, grated in at the very end, off the heat. Nobody tastes chocolate. That’s not the point. The chocolate is basically a hype man — it stands behind the wine and the venison shouting “aren’t they great?” while taking zero credit itself.
Add the supporting chaos: no potatoes (turnips pulled the shift instead), and tapioca flour instead of a roux, specifically because it doesn’t turn into a sad watery puddle after you freeze and reheat it. It feeds 8, keeps 3–4 days in the fridge, and freezes like a champ. simplyscratch.com is where it lives — so if you show up with a Dutch oven and a chocolate bar, that’s the receipt.
Check out the full recipe here.
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