• a brace of oven-ready partridge (2 birds)
• 4 rosemary sprigs
• 4 bay leaves

For the barbecue sauce

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ small onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 dried red chilli, chopped (how hot the chilli is is up to you)
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• ½ teaspoon celery salt
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 rosemary sprig
• 1 small apple, such as a Cox’s, peeled, cored and chopped into small bits
• 2 tablespoons your favourite chutney
• 1 tablespoon English mustard
• 3 tablespoons your favourite ketchup
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Make the barbecue sauce at least one day ahead of your cook-out. Set a small pan over the heat and add the oil. When it’s hot, add the onion, garlic, chilli, fennel seeds, celery salt, smoked paprika, rosemary sprig and apple. Cook gently until the apple begins to break up. Now add the chutney, mustard, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and a splash of water. Bring to a simmer and cook for a minute before whizzing with a stick blender or jug blender. It can be smooth or have a coarser texture it’s up to you. Taste the sauce to make sure you’re happy with the balance of flavours. It will keep in the fridge in a clean, airtight jar for a couple of weeks.

Spoon half the sauce over the partridge and gently rub it all over. Divide the rosemary and bay leaves between the birds, placing them inside the cavity, then place the birds in the fridge and leave them to marinate overnight.

To make a simple spit to cook your partridge on, cut two sticks to about 40cm (16in) long. Each should have a Y-shaped top and a spiky bottom these will be your uprights. Cut a 60cm (24in) or so cross-piece, then use a sharp knife to create two short splits in the stick roughly two-thirds of the way in from each end. Push the birds onto the stick so they come to rest over the splits, then push a sharpened little peg through each bird, through the split and out the other side in the same way I have in the picture.

When your fire is hot and you have a bed of glowing embers, start cooking the birds. Make sure they’re not too close to the heat or they will burn. Use a brush (I made one out of rosemary sprigs) to paint the birds with more barbecue sauce as they cook. Rotate them regularly so they cook evenly. If they are blackening, take them off the heat for a while or disperse the hot coals slightly. Cook the birds for 45–50 minutes. You can tell when they’re cooked because if you pull a leg, it should want to come away from the body with ease. Alternatively, check their internal temperature: they should be 65–70°C (150–158°F) in their thickest part. Allow the birds to rest for at least 10 minutes before tucking in. (Reserve any leftover sauce for another time.)