Martha Stewart's Go-To Tool For Perfect Meatballs Every Time

Plump, juicy, and perfectly round, the meatball is a timeless comfort food; and television personality and chef Martha Stewart uses a common kitchen utensil to create that flawless shape every time: an ice cream scoop. It's time for this kitchen utensil, often tucked away in the dark corners of a kitchen drawer, to come out of hibernation.

Regardless of your connection to these versatile and meaty masterpieces, their history crosses cultures and borders. Meatballs are synonymous with Italian cuisine, but many cultures have their own version of meatballs. Sweden has köttbullar, meatballs made with beef and often flavored with sugar, nutmeg, and fennel seeds — the tiny spice that gives Swedish meatballs big flavor. Greece has keftedes, a mixture of beef and pork, fried in olive oil; and China has lion's head meatballs, made with ginger and Shaoxing wine.

Martha Stewart's ice cream scoop meatball trick gives the tool a new purpose. The days of meticulously creating a perfectly shaped meatball by hand are long gone. If presentation is just as important as taste when entertaining, this ice cream scoop hack can create uniformity and consistency in the size and shape of meatballs. Martha Stewart's go-to tool can help guarantee the perfect size every time.

It's a good idea to start with a chilled meatball mixture. It allows for an easier scoop with the tool, creating a perfectly round shape that a human hand can struggle to replicate. The size of the ice cream scoop you use depends on the size of meatball you want to create. A smaller ice cream scoop is perfect when using the meatballs as finger foods (like in this buffalo chicken and gorgonzola recipe), or turning them into a versatile appetizer to pair with whiskey. A larger ice cream scoop with a lever can make heartier, entree-sized meatballs, and will help the mixture release from the scoop easily.

Meatballs are a global comfort food — and they just got a little easier to make. Martha Stewart's ice cream scoop hack reveals that the tool has more uses than simply scooping smooth ice cream or dolling out round cookie dough balls. This versatile meatball hack will have you scooping up and indulging in perfectly plump, tasty meatballs in no time.