Wait! You Don't Have to Pit Those CherriesThe Atlantic

Wait! You Don't Have to Pit Those Cherries
The Atlantic

We get pretty wide-eyed at the cherries that are showing up in the market. We think of all the things we could make with them... and then we remember that we'd have to pit them. And we don't own a pitter. Well, cookbook author Sally Schneider over at The Atlantic's food channel cooked whole cherries into a sweet, saucy dessert—pits, leaves, and all.

Schneider describes the dilemma of having a big bag of cherries, a hungry group of dinner guests, and no time (or, if it's us, energy) to pit the whole lot. She improvised and took a risk, cooking the whole cherries in a pan with some sugar, water, and vanilla until they were soft and fragrant.

She served them with crème fraîche, and her dinner companions dipped and slurped and tossed their pits aside as if they were eating mussels or good olives. Why not?

Read the article and get the recipe:
• Cherry Season Made Simpler, from The Atlantic

What do you think? Is this a rustic dessert you'd try? We think you could do this with other fruits, too. Roast whole plums or nectarines and just peel or cut away the soft flesh from the pit...

(Image: Sally Schneider for The Atlanic)

Comments (4)

Love it!

I have to say, though, a cherry pitter is one of the few uni-taskers I have in my kitchen. There's not much way around it (or if there is, I'm not aware of it).

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posted by eprewitt on June 22nd 2009 at 4:40pm
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I've never cooked with the pits still in, but I've heard that cherry pits give off good flavors, almost almondy I hear. So I'd like to try this method!

- Amelia of Gradually Greener

posted by GreenCayennes on June 22nd 2009 at 5:27pm
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I say leave 'em. When I lived in southern Germany on an exchange in high school, my host mother made all sorts of kuchens and tarts and such with the summer's glut of cherries, and never bothered to take the pits out, even for those sorts of baked goods. I dare say it helps force the eater to take a bit more care to really enjoy this wonderful fruit.

posted by Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake on June 22nd 2009 at 11:35pm
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In lieu of a cherry pitter, a bobby pin works well to pop out the pits. (I don't eat cherries, but I've pitted zillions of them for my mom during canning season, and we only ever used bobby pins.)

posted by ShellyIN on June 24th 2009 at 6:48am
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