Scoop Bowl Size = Portion Control
The late Victorian era through WW2 was when the precise regulation of ice cream serving sizes seemed to be very important. Vendors would attempt to control their margins by controlling the portion size. Of course, this is still true today but not with the same conviction. Using so many differently sized ice cream scoops by our modern standards seems odd. The practice of scraping off the excess from the top of the scoop bowl before serving it would likely make many of us angry. Questioning the customer as to his preference between what would be a size 12 or a size 20 portion would certainly perplex anyone today. Likely the scoop manufacturers wanted to differentiate themselves through bowl sizes and other portion control methods. Gilchrist’s Co. offered ten bowl sizes for its famous model 31. Inventors Frank Grant and George Holmes devised a scoop with a built-in scraper arm that would remove the excess ice cream from across the top of the bowl before it was served. The “No-Pak” scoop from Hamilton Beach supposedly did not compress the ice cream as much and delivered more scoops per quart than other scoops of the same size, I would have thought that this should have changed the actual bowl rating.
Here are examples of various scoops with bowl sizes ranging from 4-100. Some of these represent the only scoop of that size that I can find. Have you seen any sizes that I have not found?
Please disregard the tag numbers on these scoops. They are only for identifying the items owner.