How to easily pit cherries without a pitter (VIDEO included)
A quick trick to pit cherries using two items you probably already have in your kitchen (no cherry stoner needed)
I love eating fresh cherries on their own, but where I live, cherry season is quite short. So, when they are at their sweetest and cheapest, I put some in the freezer so I have supply of frozen cherries for shakes and smoothies.
Needless to say, it’s much more convenient to pit any kind of stone fruit before freezing…
While there are different kinds of cherry pitters on the market, I don’t want to buy a kitchen tool I’ll only use a couple of times in year, so it was very happy as I got the quick tip I’ll show you on this post.
Pitted cherries are also really nice if you have small kids at home or when you get a mouth sore.
In fact, the the first time I looked at ways to pit cherries was because I got a sore tongue and it was very painful to remove a cherry pit in the mouth.
What you’ll need to pit cherries without a cherry pitter
If like me, you try to maintain your kitchen gadgets to the minimum, you can absolutely pit cherries in a clean and easy way without having to buy a cherry pitter.
For this trick you’ll only need:
- AN EMPTY, STURDY BOTTLE:
Any kind of empty glass bottle, like a water glass bottle, a wine bottle or a beer bottle will do.
[A plastic bottle might also work, but not if it’s a soft one that bend when pushing]
- A CHOPSTICK:
You may also sue any long and stiff equivalent, like a metal straw even a or a pencil
Easy trick to pit a cherry without a pitter
Pitting cherries with this trick requires some (really, really little) practice, and after pitting one or two, you’ll find the sweet spot for it.
I’m sure, it will take you much shorter to master cherry pitting than it took me to write this!
Time needed: 1 minute
How to pit a cherry with a chopstick
- Stem cherry
If there is a stem, remove it
- Place cherry on a bottle
Put the cherry on the mouth of an empty bottle, with the spot where the stem used to be facing up.
- Secure cherry and chopstick position
Hold on the cherry gently, but firmly with one hand as with the other, you place the chopstick into the stem hole. Wrapping loosely the cherry with the hand that doesn’t push the stick is the trick to avoid cherry juice splashing.
- Push pit out
Press the chopstick down until it break through the cherry and push the cherry pit out.
The pit will fall into the bottle.
Even if the chopstick misses the pit when making the hole, you’ll be able to remove it very easily by hand.
You can also watch in this video how to remove pits from cherries without a mess with no squashing, skewering, or bleeding of red juices, while also keeping the cherries whole.
NOTE:
After pitting your cherries, the pits will be in the bottle.
You can get them out by putting some water in the bottle and then pouring the pits out with the liquid.
However, there might be times where it’s difficult to get some of the pits out, so I personally use bottles that I don’t mind discharging afterwards.
How to pit cherries without a pitter
Equipment
- Empty sturdy bottle
- Chopstick It also works with other long and stiff items, like reusable straws
Ingredients
- Fresh cherries
Instructions
- Remove stem from the cherry.
- Place the cherry on the mouth of an empty bottle. The spot where the stem used to be faces up.
- Wrap cherry gently, but firmly with one hand as with the other, you place the chopstick into the stem end.
- Press the chopstick down until it break through the cherry and push the pit out. The pit will fall down into the bottle.If however the chopstick misses the pit, it will anyway easy to remove it once there is a hole in the cherry.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What to do with pitted cherries
Once you have pitted cherries, it’s time to enjoy them!
Aside of eating them on their own, making cherry pie, ice cream or cherry sauce, you can use them as an ingredient in many beverages.
Their natural sweetness and tartness makes for an awesome taste!
Here are some drink recipes that use cherries:
There are different methods to pit cherries, like using a hairpin or a paper clip, but using a chopstick or a sturdy straw is in my opinion the easiest way to do it.
I hope you find this trick helpful too!
Please let me know how it worked for you and what your favorite recipes with cherries are!
OMG, it worked SO well. Thanks, really helpful trick!
So happy to hear it!