The Essential Tool You Need When Serving Ice Cream To A Crowd

Ice cream is a crowd-pleaser. We love serving up some of the most popular ice cream flavors at backyard barbecues during those warm summer months just as much as we love to huddle on the couch with a favorite pint while watching a movie. But when you are serving this frozen treat to a gathering of 20 people or more, it can be a challenge to ensure you have enough ice cream on hand so each person's scoop size is the same. This is why you need a portion scoop. This essential kitchen tool is all about getting just the right amount.

Portion scoops come in various sizes that help you portion out everything from veggies to cookie dough. They are not designed specifically for ice cream, but if you have one that is made out of stainless steel, you can easily use it for your ice cream scooping needs. You want to select your portion scoop based on how many people you are serving. An average scoop of ice cream clocks in at between 3 -4 ounces by volume. This means if you have a gallon of ice cream, which is 128 ounces, and are serving 4-ounce scoops, you can expect it to yield approximately 32 servings. If you have a smaller 2-ounce scoop, you can expect to get 64 scoops out of your gallon of ice cream, and if your scooper is a 6-ounce portion scoop, you will get a little more than 21 scoops from your gallon.

How can you tell how big your scooper is? What you will come to appreciate about a portion scooper is how it takes the guesswork out of the equation. You will notice that there is a number imprinted on the mechanism inside the scoop that releases your ice cream. This number has a purpose. It specifies how many level scoopfuls you will get from one quart or 32 ounces. 

So, putting this knowledge into practice means that if you have a number 6 portion scooper, you can expect to get 6 scoops of ice cream from your one-quart container of homemade vanilla ice cream. Or if you are making mini ultimate hot fudge sundaes for a group of 30, you probably want a #16 portion scooper which means your scoop size will be 2 ounces and you will get 16 scoops out of a quart. Easy, right? So, the next time you are dishing up ice cream for a school carnival or a birthday party, use a portion scooper.