When I hang my venison sticks with collagen casings it seems like the bottom of the stick gets to temp before the middle of the stick. Do most people just take them out to bloom then or do you cut the bottom off and move your temp probe up until the rest of the stick is done?
Can't say. I haven't seen that problem, but maybe my sticks aren't as long as yours. ;) ;) ;)
I take mine out. Normally let mine hang in the pantry for a few days to finish drying.
My smoker is a 6 rack so the length of the sticks are almost to the bottom v-tray.
I take out when the temp hits 152.
I made my first batch of hanging sausage 16" long and the bottoms all dried out cause they were too close to the element. My last batch I shortened to 12" and there was no problem with them drying out. I can fit 21 1-1/2" sticks that are 12" long in the 4 rack. The 19 sticks that I made were 10 pounds.
16" sticks with dried out ends.
(http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss74/renoman69/IMG_2288_zpsf4c74227.jpg) (http://s563.photobucket.com/user/renoman69/media/IMG_2288_zpsf4c74227.jpg.html)
12" sticks were much better
(http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/ss74/renoman69/IMG_2321Large_zps23aca472.jpg) (http://s563.photobucket.com/user/renoman69/media/IMG_2321Large_zps23aca472.jpg.html)
That is interesting. Thanks for the tip.