Please help! Hamburger canning and egg dehydrating failure

I need you help, pleeeeeaaase! What am I doing wrong?

SITUATION 1:
I was canning hamburger meat last weekend for the 1st time in my life.

Here is the situation:
1. the pot I have - see the pic - doesn't allow to set the temperature, only pressure and time. I choose "pressure cook" and set the timer for 1 hour 15 min per guidence I found in a few preppers videos.

2. During cooking the hamburger smells... hamburger, even through tight pressure cooker seal. After - the water is greasy as broth escaped.

3. When I got the jars out, the middle of the lids were not sucked in, at all

4. Once I pushed on the middle of the lids, they caved in as they should. I didn't try to lift the lids - they were too hot

QUESTION: should I consider the jars NOT safely cooked for shelf life? Right now I put them all in the fridge, just to be on the safe side.

SITUATION 2:
Learned online how to dehydrate eggs to make powder for long storage - raw drying, for scrambled eggs.

1. Did - as it was advised - 165° F for 10 hours (I read that 8  hours at 140 degrees is not safe).

2. Eggs became bright orange and brittle already in 5 hours

3. I faithfully kept them in the dehydrator for the whole time.

4. Before running a new batch, tried to cook some - just to make sure it works. See the picture for the result 😭😭😭. The egg flakes look and smell like cookies, they can't be restored to anything.

I need your advice - what I was doing wrong? How to improve? Pleas!

The instant pot isn't recommended for pressure canning, it doesn't reach as high of a pressure as a stove top canner. I keep hoping they will start to publish recipes for pressure cooking with an instant pot, but so far, nope :(  I would consider those jars not safety canned.

For future reference, when canning, do not press down on the top of the lids. They won't be sealed, and have that vacuum, when they come out of the pot, they press down as they cool. Leave them, and then refirdgertate if they don't pop down on their own. A seal alone is not a sign of a good, safe, canning job - you also need to look at the correct times.

I have no experience with dehydrating eggs, but know that times are often off in recipes you find online. It depends on the airflow in the dehydrator, how tightly it is packed, the humidity of the house and a whole host of factors. I go by feel and appearance, not time.

Here's a reliable website that should be able to answer most canning questions:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html

165F is way over the temperature required to start to cook eggs so that's why you can't do anything with them, you have just made dried scrambled eggs.  Eggs start to cook at  133F and that green ring and nasty smell appears at 176F when they are "fully" cooked.

You can only take drying times as approximations, it will vary on your conditions.

I give you lots of credit for trying.  For serious canning, I have had good luck with All American.  I don’t think I have ever dehydrated eggs.

If broth escaped you didn't have enough head space in the jar or you cooled down to rapidly.  Everything I have read says insta is NOT good for pressure canning.  Various reasons given.

As for testing the lids when did you test them?  If they cooled to completely to room temperature and hadn't pinged that is a failure.  Even if you can get the seal pushing something is wrong and the product should be eaten immediately.  If you can smell the product in the jar after it is closed you have a problem.  Likely your jar or the sealing surface is contaminated.  With oily foods you boil clean lids, wipe the jar sealing surface firmly down with vinegar rag to eliminate any grease that may mess with the seal.(you need to be anal about this part.)   Install lid and jar ring.  Tighten the jar ring moderately tight, pressure cook at time and pressure for your jar size and elevation.  Allow pressure cooker to completely cool before open.(usually over night roughly)  Remove the jars to an open air rack or counter.  They main still be slightly warm.  Allow to cool to room temperature without touching.  If they are sealed at this point great.  If not refrigerate and use soonest.  Leave the jars on the counter for 4 or 5 days.  Are they still sealed?  If yes shelve.  Even if you have done everything right expect about 1 in 50 to fail before the end of the week.

I certainly don't know though I feel the hamburger is probably safe to eat if it is in the fridge for a few days.  If it were mine I would freeze what you can't eat in a few days.

As far as I know, the eggs might be salvageable if you grind them up.  The ones we buy are "Powdered Eggs" though they are a much lighter color.  It wouldn't hurt to see what happens if you can get them to a powder.  If nothing else, put them in the freezer and try using them when you bake something.

Props for being adventurous and giving it a try!
But maybe it's not so bad that the experiment failed, when eggs are dried the cell walls collapse from lack of pressure and the essential fatty acids stored inside and other reactive nutrients are exposed to air and heat. Oxidization of cholesterol, sphingomyelin, PUFA oils and some other components are unavoidable, even when doing it in cold conditions and low pressure a substantial proportion of the essential nutrients become quite toxic, they add TBHQ and dry eggs in seconds in the industry to limit it, but it is still a huge problem with oxidation under storage. Also TBHQ is a fat soluble toxin.

As an experiment you could try and find an ant hive you want gone and see what happens if they eat it, I don't know what the answer is but scientist have been killing rats with large doses of dehydrated eggs for a while.

Catie George wrote:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can5_meat.html

Thank you!

The whole issue of electric pressure canners is complicated. See the summary thread I posted separately.

https://permies.com/t/169978/kitchen/Pressure-canning-electric-canner-information

Cathy James wrote:The whole issue of electric pressure canners is complicated. See the summary thread I posted separately.

https://permies.com/t/169978/kitchen/Pressure-canning-electric-canner-information

Thank you!