Hey guy’s, I have the exact opposite problem most people have. My sticks were a little to wet. First of all I will explain all the details of the process I used.
I mixed 18 lbs. of deer with 7 lbs. of pork shoulder, then I used seasoning and cure with 25 oz. of water, handmixed until sticky then added 3 lbs. high temp cheddar and encapsulated citric acid and mixed until even. I then stuffed 21mm collagen casings 6 feet long and hung in my smoker I just built. My smoker is a commercial stainless refrigerator that I removed all the foam and replaced with mineral wool and put an oven element in it that I control with an Auber instruments PID. The smoke is supplied by a smoke daddy cold smoke generator. I started at 100 degrees for one hour to dry the casings and then put a big cast iron skillet in for a water pan with 4 automotive sponges sticking half out of the water. Then took the heat to 125 for and hour and then 150 for an hour and then 175 and in 4 1/2 hours they were at 160 so I pulled them and ice bathed them until the got down to 50 degrees, then hung them back up for 4 hours. Oh and I stapled the ends of the sticks after stuffing and the damper on the smoker is a 3” pipe which was barely cracked. So I guess I’m wondering if the relative humidity was too high because of all the sponges or did I not mix long enough to get enough protein extraction? Any comments would be greatly appreciated if you’ve ever had this problem thank you in advance for your response

Dave in AZ thanks for your reply and yes it is very cold but I put on my insulated rubber coated gloves that are made for handling hot meat. It was quite a chore and I bet I didn’t do it for 10 minutes! I’m thinking you are either partially correct or fully thanks for the reply again

mdseaside That is a great idea I think I will run them a little longer at 150 next time ! I’m gonna look for a way to tell what the humidity is in the smoker I wonder if there is some kind of sensor I could get? Do you have any idea what the humidity is supposed to be?

I was very pleased with the texture and taste of the sticks so I think the citric acid was OK also I had another batch with it that did not have any citric acid and they came out the same way but thank you for your reply