Recipes
Pizza Night at Home
A provisional home-pizza recipe with a same-day dough, metric quantities, two oven methods and practical guidance for shaping, topping and baking.
Cookin Inspires
The kitchen, written down.
Recipes, technique, buying advice and care — from a family business that has been selling this equipment in South Africa since 2010. Useful whether or not you buy anything.
The featured story
Choosing a chef's knife
One knife does eighty percent of the work. Here is how to pick the one that suits your hand.
22 September 2026 · 3 min read
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Pizza Night at Home
A calm, practical plan for four crisp, well-balanced pizzas — whether you are working with a domestic oven or a dedicated outdoor pizza oven.
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27 published
How To
Caring for & using glassware
Choosing the right glass for the job, washing and drying without clouding, avoiding thermal shock and chips, and storing glassware so rims and stems survive — a practical guide for South African homes.
Kitchen Knowledge
Coffee Brewing Basics: Grind, Ratio & Method
How grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, water and brew time shape the cup — with starting points for moka pot, pour-over and French press, and a simple way to fix bitter, sour, weak or muddy coffee.
How To
Getting the Best from Your Bakeware
A practical guide to better results from everyday bakeware: choosing the right pan, materials and size, greasing and lining, oven position and preheating, adapting recipes when you change tins, and fixing sticking, sinking and scorching.
How To
How to Control Heat in a Pan
Why food sticks, scorches or stays pale — and how to control preheating, oil, crowding, heat recovery and deglazing in stainless steel, cast iron and non-stick pans.
Kitchen Knowledge
Using Cookware on Induction & in the Oven
How to check cookware for induction and oven use: magnetic bases, the magnet test, induction adapters, cooking-zone size, handles, lids, coatings and manufacturer limits.
Buying Guides
Chef's knife or santoku? Choosing the knives you actually need
Chef's knife, santoku, paring, bread and carving knives compared: blade shape, useful sizes, cutting style, grip and the home-kitchen jobs each one suits, plus when one knife covers most of it.
Browse Cookin Inspires
- RecipesRecipes written for South African kitchens — provisional until Cookin has tested and photographed them.4 stories
- How ToTechnique, explained once and explained properly.13 stories
- Buying GuidesWhat actually matters when you are choosing, and what does not.7 stories
- Kitchen KnowledgeMaterials, care and the long life of good equipment.2 stories
- Cookin EditsSeasonal ideas, tables worth sitting at, and the South African calendar.1 story
The South African season
The braai table
The fire gets all the attention. The table is what people actually remember.
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Popular topics
- Care13
- Cookware10
- Buying7
- Knives6
- Coffee3
- Outdoor3
- Technique3
- Baking2
- Boards2
- Braai2
Topics become their own pages once enough genuine content stands behind them. We would rather have five substantial subjects than thirty empty ones.
New writing, once or twice a month.
Recipes as they are finished, seasonal edits, and the occasional piece of buying advice. You can sign up at the bottom of any page.
About Cookin Inspires
Cookin Inspires is the editorial side of Cookin — a South African kitchenware business that has spent years answering the same questions across a shop counter. Which chef's knife. Whether cast iron is worth the weight. Why a non-stick pan stopped working. Those answers belong somewhere better than a conversation.
Everything here is written and edited by people who handle the equipment daily. Where we recommend a product we link to it, with the reason it is relevant and its live price — but the writing is meant to be useful on its own. If a piece only makes sense as a sales argument, it does not get published.
The library grows deliberately rather than quickly: recipes clearly marked as provisional until Cookin has tested and photographed them, technique explained once and explained properly, and seasonal writing that follows the South African calendar rather than a northern one.