All You Need Is An Ice Cream Scoop For Perfectly Shaped Crab Cakes

There are many ways to eat fresh crab meat, but none quite so iconic as crab cakes. Easily the most esteemed of all savory patties, a good crab cake can stand on its own as a delicate appetizer or fill out two pieces of bread in a crab cake sandwich. They can be fried or sauteéd, and they don't require a lot of ingredients; in fact, the less filler, the better. All you need to make the perfect crab cake is high-quality crab meat, some breadcrumbs, an egg to bind the mixture, maybe some onions or shallots for flavor, and absolutely some Old Bay seasoning (especially if you're from Maryland). If you're making a batch, it can be a little hard to figure out how to portion it all out if you're just eyeballing it. Without correctly measuring your mix, there's a good chance that you'll end up with some big cakes and some small ones, which won't cook through in the same amount of time. If you have an ice cream scoop, however, you can make quick work of a bowl of crab cake mix and serve up perfectly shaped cakes every time.

Before you start scooping, though, there are several factors to keep in mind. Ignore them, and you might be faced with a disaster that could leave you and your guests feeling extra crabby.

If you want to get perfectly even-sized crab cakes with just the right density to keep the insides moist and the outsides crisp, an ice cream scoop is the ideal tool. Don't just grab whatever ice cream scoop, however. Scoops come in two common shapes: one has no moving parts and is shaped a bit like the letter "C," which is the scoop of choice at most ice cream shops; the other is shaped like a half sphere with a spring-loaded lever to pry the ice cream out. Sometimes these scoops have a spring-loaded handle that you squeeze instead of a lever. For crab cake-making, you want to choose a scoop with a lever.

Ice cream scoops with levers are perfect for making crab cakes because they have a flat side, so you can level them off once you pack them full of mix, giving you consistency cake after cake. The other style of ice cream scoop has a curved edge that's great for scooping ice cream but is too uneven for leveling off a scoop of crab cake mix. Scoops with levers also make it easy to flip the mixture right out with a flick of the handle.

When making crab cakes using an ice cream scoop, it's nice to have that flat side you get from leveling off the scoop. When you squeeze the scoop to release the mix, you can plunk the cake down on its flat side and give it a gentle squish with two fingers to flatten it out for cooking. Then, move on to the next cake, and so on.

Scoops with levers come in many different sizes, but the most common sizes for crab cakes are #20, #24, or #30, which measure between 1 ¾ inches and 2 inches in diameter. These also happen to be good options for scooping other soft stuff like falafel balls and medium-sized cookies, so they're a good investment for a well-equipped kitchen, and you can buy one online for around $10 or less.

Once you get the hang of it, you can crank out a tray of crab cakes with your scoop in just a couple of minutes; way less time and guesswork than using two spoons (or even your hands). Plus, once you've got a good scoop in your utility drawer, you'll have the perfect measuring tool for any scoopable mix, from cookies to meatballs — and of course, ice cream.