No Cherry Pitter? Use a Pastry Tip

As we saw earlier this week, when cooking with cherries, sometimes it's just fine to leave the pits in. However, many recipes do require the extra step. Here is our simple and efficient method for removing cherry stones.

A cherry pitter is one of those convenient but limited use gadgets we can live without. Instead, we employ something we already have lying around the kitchen: a metal pastry tip. Just remove the stem and place the cherry, stem side down, over the pastry tip. Press firmly and voilà – out pops the pit. We use a rounded tip to avoid potential accidents, but a sharper star tip may also be used.

We have tried other cherry pitting techniques using household items like chopsticks and paperclips, but always return to the pastry tip method. (We'd like to credit the original source for this tip but cannot recall whether we picked it up from Martha Stewart or Cook's Illustrated.) How do you pit cherries?

(Images: Gregory Han)

Comments (8)

that looks like it makes a mess!!! I'm not a fan of unitaksers, but I do like that I can use the cherry pitter over the sink and easily wash my mess away (and not stain my counters!). You can use them on olives too.

posted by lsk on June 25th 2009 at 3:13pm
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lsk, we hope you'll forgive our crime scene-like photos! :) It actually not terribly messy; the amount of juice you see is after pitting about a pound of cherries.

posted by Emily Ho on June 25th 2009 at 3:41pm
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i found it really easy using one of those forks from a fondue set someone randomly gave me.

they look like this - http://www.germes-online.com/direct/dbimage/50270933/Fondue_Forks.jpg

posted by jeangenie on June 25th 2009 at 4:06pm
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i just use a fondue fork. works well. fingers stay a bit less sticky.

posted by jeangenie on June 25th 2009 at 4:07pm
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*smacks forehead*

Where was this tip when I splurged on that cherry pitter 4 or 5 years ago?! I know you can also pit them like olives, by cracking them with the flat side of a knife, but I never liked how flat (and bruised) they end up - especially because I like to soak pitted cherries in brandy and spices for my mid-Winter Manhattans!

So smart!

http://www.abreadaday.com

posted by eprewitt on June 25th 2009 at 5:05pm
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A paper clip unfolded into an S shape works perfectly.

posted by bloggerkat on June 26th 2009 at 9:00am
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I always use a bobby pin, and think it works very well.

http://marymaker.blogspot.com/2009/06/cherries-in-season.html

posted by MaryMaker on June 26th 2009 at 12:00pm
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I find that the tip works better for strawberries.

posted by anaximander on June 26th 2009 at 12:50pm
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