THE BUTCHERS CUT
BY JOHN MUFF
FROM SAUSAGES TO SPIRITS
Expanding from its butchery roots into quality
homemade ready meals, deli items, bread,
vegetables, wine, beer and spirits - Muffs meets
all your foodie needs in Bromborough.
Originally a butcher’s shop, Muffs of Bromborough
has metamorphosed into an Aladdin’s Cave of
foodie goodies, with traditional butchery – and the
family’s own sausages and black pudding – at its
heart.
Today, the shop is a food hall selling everything
from meat, cheese, bread and vegetables to wines,
local beers and gins, plus an extra special selection
of made on the premises quality ready meals to cook
up at home. There’s a hot meals and sandwiches
counter too. John Muff ’s dad, Stephen, and
grandfather Jack began the business in Birkenhead
before moving to Bromborough in 1974. In 2016,
the shop expanded after moving a couple of doors
down the street.
John said: “We’re now more of a food hall. It’s a
much bigger shop. The butcher has some very
special items now – value-added products like
hunter’s chicken, chorizo chicken, beef wellington
28 wirrallife.com
and pork wellington, and marinaded chicken and
pork. All hand-made, quality produced ready meals
that customers can take home and put in the oven.”
John started his career training as a butcher at
the family shop, before going to run the factory
that supplied the local supermarkets with Muff ’s
sausages. Then he trained as a chef and brought all
his experience to the food hall, which boasts Muffs’
black pudding and award winning sausages. “We’ve
won best in the UK for our Old English sausages,”
he said. “There are 20 different varieties and they
change quite a bit to keep it interesting. At any one
time there are around 12 varieties and they rotate
on a daily basis.”
The traditional butchery remains at the heart of the
business. Muffs’ uses dry ageing fridges to mature
and tenderise its beef, which like the majority of its
meat is sourced through a slaughterhouse in North
Wales that works with local farms. The local ethos
is also apparent in the other items the shop stocks,
from Wirral Gin to in-season asparagus from local
growers. And it’s proving a long-term recipe for
success for Muffs.