Costco sells a Korean BBQ Pork Jerky with the brand name Golden Island
It's delicious- it's soft but chewy, smokey, sesame-ey, moist with the sugars but obviously also dried enough to not need refrigeration.
I've tried making it myself with mixed results. The marinade is easy: ginger, sesame, brown sugar, etc. The flavor is good but my texture isn't quite right. I tried my normal jerky method which is to marinate and dehydrate. As you would expect, the sugars didn't caramelize correctly and the meat didn't take on the soft, chewy, candied texture that I crave.
The labeling and the texture imply that the meat is cooked. A Chinese pork "jerky" that I learned about from this question is only cooked. I want the meat to also be preserved so only roasting/grilling is insufficient.
There are several questions here:
Does this product represent a dish in Korean cuisine or is it a fusion variation? If I could find a name I could find a recipe.
How could I both cook and preserve my pork?
The options that come to mind are:
- Smoking until dehydrated (requires much more effort as I think it would have to be a cool smoking over a long period of time)
- Grilling briefly for flavor and then dehydrating until done. (does partially cooked meat still dehydrate?)
Is there some other method that I haven't thought of?