Matthew Amster-Burton on his Notorious C.U.T.

Matthew Amster-Burton got around to trying his 5-month Mangalitsa belly and ribs.[1]

Here's his relevant remarks (with bold supplied by me):

Wooly’s Heath Putnam gave me a discounted piece of pork belly a couple weeks ago, and I finally got around to cooking it. It was a small piece, and I wanted to be semi-scientific about it. So rather than cooking the pork in chicken stock and white wine, like Matt and Rebekah, I braised it in salted water. I cooked it for about five hours, which was longer than necessary, but I had to leave it going while I picked Iris up from school. Then I took the pork out of the braising liquid and cranked the oven to 500°F. I salted and peppered the meat and crisped it up for 15 minutes, then sliced it into individual ribs. If this pork is as great as everyone says, I figured, it’ll be good with no help from wine, stock, aromatics, or spices.

It was. Iris was delighted with crispy pork ribs for snack, and so was I.

We have yet to find people who like belly who don't love our Notorious C.U.T.

You probably can't get a better pork belly than our Mangalitsa - although in the future, the best will come from California.

[1] Matt Wright bought a 7-month belly. That one probably had better flavor and fat composition, being a piece of a slightly older piggy. Mr. Amster-Burton's was from the same batch of pigs as Rebekah Denn's.