@skipdiggidy When doing summer sausage or snack sticks or really any cured sausage like product I run the first hour without any smoke and I have the dampers pretty much wide open, this is just a drying phase. For starting temp it will change a little depending on the diameter of the product but I usually start out at 120°. Then I close the dampers down most of the way and start adding smoke at that point. It has always seemed to work very well for me. Starting out adding smoke is going to cause the water evaporating from the casing to retain the smoke, then when it evaporates your casing has a strong smoke to it but it hasn’t really transferred to the meat.

@Hip-Granny Welcome to the board! We will do our best to help you with any questions!

Hey Hip Granny, with a call sign like that…you gotta be a pretty hip granny! I’ve had great success with slightly over drying my jerky and then letting it sit for a day or so and then I vacuum seal it it small quantities (maybe 10 or so pieces). I’ve had it stored that way out in the garage for over a year and it still tastes great and didn’t give anyone the craps so i think it’s good. I’m sure some will argue with me that I can’t do it like this but they can argue all they want, I have proof it works. I’ve never tried the snack stix this way, they’re usually have much more moisture content and I just don’t think it’ll work, but the jerky works great. My advice is try a small batch, let it sit as long a you dare…then open it, give it a good sniff test and then maybe a small bite or two and see what you think. Good luck. Tom