Hello, so last week I smoked 10 lbs of cheddar smokies and I stuffed my casings but did not tie the ends. Some of the casings pulled back during the smoking process but they still came out great. So this time I stuffed the casings and I tied off the ends and hung them in the smoker. Well once the temp his 160 I threw them in an ice bath and let them hang overnight and I noticed that at the ends of some there was a soft jelly like material that could not drain and I lost parts of the smokies. So how does everyone pack their casings or why could I be doing wrong? Now mind you they came out great other that those areas.  

I used the hi mountain snack stick kit. I started them at like 120 for an hour or so then bumped them up about 10 degrees each hour until I got around 200 to get it to 160. I don’t get a lot of smoke unless I hit around 200. Which is fine because I don’t want too smoky of a flavor. But the fluid like substance was almost like all the fat fell to the bottom of the smokie and sat there.