The $17 Baking Tool I Use for Making Perfect Meatballs Every Time

When I’m meal prepping for clients and stocking their fridge with a variety of dishes for the week, meatballs are always on the list! They’re super easy to reheat and tend to taste better the next day after the flavors meld together. They’re truly the perfect dinner food to prep ahead of time. The only downside? Things can get pretty messy with so many ingredients involved. Enter: the OXO Cookie Scoop! No more mess.

I’m sure you get the idea here. Making meatballs involves pinching blobs of meat mixture, getting bits stuck under your nails, sticky rolling, and trying not to touch your face to scratch an itch. In the end, you probably end up wiping your hands a trillion times with paper towels just forming them. They’re so delicious that it’s always worth the effort, but this cookie scoop makes the process so much easier. Just scoop and plop right into your fry pan or baking tray. That’s really it.

The medium size scoop is my favorite. It holds 1.5 tablespoons, which makes for the perfectly sized meatball. This is especially helpful for meal prep when portioning throughout the week. Plus, all of the meatballs actually come out the same uniform size! For dishes like Italian wedding soup with mini meatballs, OXO makes a small scoop that holds 1 teaspoon. Just imagine how cute those babies will be! For those of you who are strict large Italian meatballs only folks (my boyfriend, for one), the scoop comes in a large size, which holds 3 tablespoons. If all of these sizes sound useful, Amazon has a cookie scoop 3-pack that’ll have you making meatballs like a pro!

The cookie scoop lets my meatball imagination run wild, so weekly meal prep is never boring. When you get your scoop, you’ll be well equipped to add everything from General Tso’s chicken meatballs to low-maintenance air-fryer meatballs, even falafel, into your regular meal rotation. And remember, with all these meatballs in your near future, freezer bags and food storage containers are your friend! All in all, the possibilities of the cookie scoop are endless, but of course … we can’t forget the cookies!

Buy: OXO Medium Stainless Steel Cookie Scoop, $16.99