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alternative to cherry pitter?

14 years ago

I do not own a cherry pitter and I really have no need for one except once or maybe twice a year. However, I bought a bag of cherries at the grocery and I found a recipe for cherry clafoutis that I would like to try. Is there an easy way to pit cherries or am I just going to have to cut each one in half and pick out the stone?

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Comments (10)

ruthanna_gw
14 years ago
A large sized metal paper clip
annie1992
14 years ago
I've also used a clean hair pin or a plastic straw. The hair pin Grandma was good at, me not so much. The straw is easier, just push through the stem end and out through the bottom and the pit pops out.

It's gotta be a sturdy straw, though, and a small enough diameter that the pit "catches".

Annie
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Elery bought me a Leifheit last year, we did 20 pounds of sweet cherries in under and hour. If you go too fast, you'll occasionally miss a pit, but you can put a big cup of cherries in the top and they'll drop down one at a time for pitting with the plunger. The pits drop into the bottom chamber, the cherries get spit out into a bowl. Works like a charm, and well worth the $25 or so he spent for it. It got really good reviews on Amazon, so I'm not the only one who likes it. Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Leifheit cherry pitter
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"subgenus" may be more appropriate (or maybe not, taxonomists have put both sweet and sour cherries into the subgenus Cerasus). All these different cherry species are very closely related, if one wants to consider them different species. This is one example where the line separating different species is not a clear one. It could even be possible to consider the different cherry families as subspecies. After all, if they can freely interbreed and hybridize with each other, can they not be considered members within the same species? (by this definition we could divide all cherries into only 2 groups: those with 16 chromosomes and those with 32) Or one could attempt to divide cherries into different families: Sweet cherries (P. avium), sour cherries, Black cherries plus Capulin native to the American continent (put into same group), and Asian flowering cherries. Perhaps better classification could be provided if taxonomists utilized multiple degrees of species relatedness/separation, because it is ambiguous whether some of the different cherries should be classified as entirely separate species or subspecies within a singular species, neither of which would be wholly accurate.
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bbstx
Original Author
14 years ago
Wow! thanks for such prompt responses! I have paper clips. I'm going to have to check on straws.
Marilyn Sue McClintock
14 years ago
A clean straw works very well and keeps them pretty whole, however, if I am doing a lot, I don't want to mess with a straw, I just sit and pit them by hand. Much faster.

Sue
brenda55
14 years ago
Annie, you rock, well, actually Grandma. I used a straw and it worked perfectly. I had about 10 lbs and it went very fast. I had plastic straws left over from a fundraising event, that I cut in half and the pits fit exactly in them. I have about 16 more, if anyone needs one, I'd love to get rid of them as they are whistles on one end, and Aleksi keeps finding them. Just email me and I'll drop one in the mail. So simple a gadget. Wonder if Kathy has one in her gadget collection...lol.

Brenda
annie1992
14 years ago
Brenda, I'm glad it worked so well. Grandma was pretty darned good at finding ways to do things cheaply with what she had on hand. 16 straws with whistles on the end. Sounds like a Grandma gift to me, parents would never give their children something that made that much noise...(grin).

Annie
sally_grower
14 years ago
I use an old time metal potato peeler. The little pointy end slips right in and the curve goes right in beside the pit. It works great!
Sally
hawk307
14 years ago
bbstx:
I use my Turkey Baster. It has an end the size of a straw.

It is a lot fatter to hold in your hand.

Find a plastic bottle with the right size neck to hold the Cherry and Cut the bottom off off.

Place the Cherry on the neck and push the Baster through,
to push the seed out.

You can place the bottle in a small dish to start.
When you are done the seeds will all be in the dish!!!
LOU
coconut_nj
14 years ago
Since I don't usually care if the cherries get smashed a bit I usually just give em a good whack with the side of a heavy cleaver or heavy chefs knife like you do to pit olives or dates. It splits the cherry and loosens the pit. It goes pretty fast when you get the hang of it. I whack a bunch then go back and separate the pits from the cherries.
rachelellen
14 years ago
Woo hoo!!!

I'm with coconut-nj. Well, at least I was until I bought a Bo-Na-Fide cherry pitter. I don't hold with gadgets much...they generally take more drawer space than they're worth...but my cherry pitter is a pal, as I can aim the cherry juice splats into a bowl instead of all over the counter.

Still, if you aren't going to pit enough cherries to make it worth owning the gadget, a big towel spread over the work surface will catch the juice (most of it anyway), and a good whack with a cleaver loosens the pits for you to simply pick out.

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