Advanced cooks - I need some ideas! I am developing a cranberry sauce recipe.?

I think you need more savory stuff in there, some sort of allium...I'd try shallot (or onion and tiny bit of garlic - be sure not to burn garlic). Shallot is sweeter, I'm a big fan of shallot. I'd also try possibly some sort of pepper.

The bacon makes it savory but the rest of your ingredients are sweet so you need to bump the savory. In fact, I think you've got WAY too much sugar going on.

BUT - it's your recipe - my final suggestion is to write down every step while you are doing it. It's easy to forget steps. When I'm working on a recipe I keep a clipboard right there, write down every step and measurement while I do it then review my recipe and make notes on what to change for next time when I taste it. As I do each recipe again I again write down every step, taste and take notes. Each time I do this I staple the "new" version to the top of my stack...so if I say my recipe for say...red enchilada sauce is 1/4 inch thick, it means I've worked on it many many times!

Another suggestion I have is to search cranberry sauce recipes, specifically savory ones, maybe even print out the ones you like the look of and use them as a "base" for your ideas. When I do this I always staple the printouts to my working recipe so I have a record of sources.

Another thought on your bacon in this recipe, it will not stay crisp when you mix it with the cranberry so you may want to use it as a garnish on top of your finished dish you will be using the cranberry sauce for.

My local organic market makes an absolutely outstanding cranberry salsa that they mostly use on their house turkey sandwich but that is occasionally available as a bulk purchase by the pint or half pint. Next time I see it I'm going to get it and try it with BACON! I like your instinct here!

Some orange zest like the other person said would be good...maybe 1-2tsp. IMO 1 lb of bacon is A LOT for one package of cranberrys...I would think maybe more like a few diced strips...especially since it will likely be put onto meat. If it's being put onto ham that is kinda pork-overload IMO and I would omit the bacon completely...it could be a nice addition if it's going on turkey though. Diced yellow onion would work well too, maybe 1/2 cup or so (if you do add onion, lightly brown it in some butter before adding it, or in bacon grease if you do end up cooking bacon). I'm a big fan of garlic, and garlic and fruit can work well together (orange chicken, for example) but IMO you should NOT add garlic like the other person said. The yellow onion will give a slightly pungent flavor, but yellow onions are mild and slightly sweet which will blend well with the recipe, garlic would taste out of place with cranberry sauce IMO.

I'm working on some ideas with fresh cranberries also. I want to do a whole berry sauce and chopped or ground relish. I would only be guessing at a lot of things to go about how I could help. Is your sauce going to be served over

Hors d'oeuvres,meat, turkey or a ham? Something to consider as a baseline flavor is you've got a pan of smoked bacon flavor waiting to happen. I would reserve the crumbled bacon. Apples, walnuts, bacon and cranberry?

Orange zest and port wine. I wouldn't mix cranberry sauce and bacon myself. It could overwhelm the flavour completely, especially with the amount you want to use.

Basically you are adding bacon to a basic cranberry sauce. Nothing crazy here.

Use some of the orange zest for extra flavour and add a bit of port too .or a dash of bourbon

you need the brown sugar, but not the bacon and the white sugar. us more Oj, and the spice: what kind of spice would be good, sage?