Butchers' week 2025

National Butcher's week

Butcher's week is a yearly event at the beginning of March that allows a spotlight to be shown on the incredible skill behind the meat counters of Britain.  Butchers all over the UK are highly skilled individuals with expertise in the fine art of Butchery.

Shop All Butchers' specials

QUALITY

At Donald Russell, quality is at the heart of everything we do.  Our Butchers are highly trained through sight, touch and even smell to understand when each cut is at the peak of quality and maturation.  It is through this highly skilled craftmanship that our products are produced to a standard akin to that found in some of the world's best restaurants.  We have a highly-skilled Chef and an expert Quality Assurance Team to ensure this.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

These products are prepared from scratch using traditional butchery methods. We prepare from prime cuts of meat trimming to the highest of specifications before cutting the final product to size. 
We have a wide range of show stopping products at Donald Russell that we make here in our butchery in Inverurie, including all our burgers & sausages. We ensure to use the finest quality ingredients which are carefully crafted by a team with a wealth of experience. 

HERITAGE

The Butcher that started it all, championing the craft of Butchery and producing/delivering the very best to the world's best restaurants and doors of discerning customers across the UK. Proud to be based in the small but vibrant village of Inverurie, Aberdeenshire in the picturesque Scottish countryside, we bring the best of Scottish produce to the customers across the country, championing our suppliers alongside our own established methods.

Centre Cut Fillet Steak

Our award-winning fillet steak is cut by hand from the centre of the fillet and matured for at least 28 days for the finest taste and meltingly tender texture.

Ribeye Steak

Our award-winning Ribeye Steak, traditionally matured for at least 35 days, packs a big hit of intensely rich flavour thanks to the generous 
marbling.

Traditional Rump Steak

Our Traditional Rump Steaks are cut by hand in our Aberdeenshire butchery and matured for at least 35 days to ensure a tender texture.

Sirloin Steak

Enjoy the same top-quality steaks that are served in the world’s best restaurants from your own home. An award-winning balance of tenderness and rich flavour. Hand-prepared and traditionally matured for at least 28 days. 

Expertly hand-cut by our Butchers

Expertly hand-finished by our Butchers

Expertly hand-trimmed by our Butchers

'Meat' the team...

Mark

Master Butcher

Ravin 

Butcher

Irvine

Butcher

Dave

Head of Butchery

Over 50 years of heritage in butchery

Who are we? The name comes from two people with a single love for top-quality meat: Aberdeenshire farmer William Donald and Butcher John Stone of Russell Meats. When the two came together in 1974, it led to us supplying some of the most prestigious restaurants and hotels including Kensington Place, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand and the Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo.

Nearly 50 years on, with nearly half a century of supplying the finest restaurants and hotels, as well as the Royal Households and you, our customers, we have proud heritage in butchery. Many of our Butchers have decades of experience, all of which goes into ensuring that we can continue this heritage for many years to come.

We’re also passionate about passing these traditional skills onto the next generation of Butchers. Our apprentices have the chance to learn about all aspects of Butchery in a hands-on way, keeping the skills alive for years to come.

Celebrate the art of craft butchery

We're passionate about the traditional skills of craft butchery and passing them on to the next generation. Even with all the advances in technology which make the job easier, it's essential to have an expert touch, what we call the 'Butcher's eye'. We work with all of our apprentices to make sure that this is passed on along with the skills and techniques needed to do the job.

There are a lot of skills a Butcher needs, but if we had to choose the most important, it would be hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is an essential skill for Butchers, as it enables them to work quickly and efficiently with a sharp knife without risking injury. 

In addition to hand-eye coordination, depth perception is also a crucial skill. This allows them to estimate precisely how much meat to cut. This way they can reduce waste and make each cut visually pleasing. 

Our continuous commitment to quality

At Donald Russell, we don’t just cut and sell meat, we own the whole process. We control the buying, aging, cutting, packaging and selling, in order to allow us to bring you the best quality meat from our butchery to your dinner table.

Our uncompromising commitment to quality means that only around 50% of the beef available to buy is of a high enough standard for us to even consider it. Even if it's within that 50%, our expert Butchers will reject anything they feel isn't perfect. This quality control happens all the way through the process. Anything that's not good enough for the finest Chefs isn't good enough for our customers.

You might think fresher is better, but when it comes to meat, the aging process is crucial. It transforms the good cuts into great ones. Aging refers to the time that the meat is stored under controlled conditions to improve its tenderness, texture, and flavour. 

Anyone who has tasted a properly aged steak can attest to the remarkable difference. Aging allows for the development of complex flavours and unique aromas that you simply won’t find in fresh meat.

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