How To Pit Cherries, Even If You Don't Have A Pitter

Cherries, a part of the stone fruit family, are packed full of nutrients. There are two main categories of cherries: tart (Prunus cerasus L.) and sweet (Prunus avium L.), as well as a variety of colors, including red, purple, black, and yellow. They are great for everyday snacking and an excellent choice for baked goods and other culinary delights.

Benefits Of Pitting Cherries

Cherry pits are hard and rigid, and if you bite into an unpitted cherry and reach the pit by accident, it could cause some tooth pain. Of course, many people enjoy eating a bowl of unpitted cherries, simply spitting out the pits as they snack.  

But for nearly all other cherry uses, pitting is practically non-negotiable. And if you have small children who enjoy whole fruits but who haven’t learned the fine art of nibbling around the cherry’s pit and then spitting out the pit, pitting cherries before regular snacking is necessary for safety purposes. While it can often feel tedious to pit a whole bag of cherries you just brought home from the market, in reality, it’s not that much more laborious than trimming wax beans or mincing garlic.

Method 1: Cherry Pitter

If you’re planning to make a cherry pie or cake and your recipe calls for a lot of the fruit, you may want to just buy a cherry pitter and call it a day. The nifty kitchen tool can be purchased for as little as $10 and is a quick study.

How To Use

Simply plunge the pitter into the cherry and allow the tool to extract the pit while keeping the cherry intact. 

What To Know

The most common type of cherry pitter removes just one cherry at a time, so, like a garlic press that presses one clove at a time, it is a bit of a process, but it’s not difficult and can even be meditative with the right attitude. There are some fancier versions of the tool that now allow you to load multiple cherries at once, each waiting its turn to be pitted until you are ready to load again. (The pits drop into a container so there’s often less cherry juice splash with this method as well.)

Method 2: Knife

Using a knife to pit cherries is effective and easy to do. Before you try this method, it's a good idea to wear an apron, as you’re likely to experience some juice splatter while pitting with a knife.

What You'll Need

• Chef’s knife
• Cutting board
• Empty bowl to toss the pits as you work through the batch of cherries

How To

Using the flat side of the knife, carefully push down on the cherry on the cutting board. At this point, the flattened cherry should pretty easily release the pit and you can pluck it out nicely.

Method 3: Paper Clip

Pitting cherries using a paper clip is a little messy, but it works.

What To Know

Because the paper clip will be in direct contact with the stone fruit, you need to sterilize it before using it as a makeshift pitter.

How To

1. With caution, carefully boil the paperclip or heat it over a flame and allow it to cool before handling to pit the cherries.
2. Once cooled, unwind the paper clip so that it's shaped like an “S.”
3. Insert one of the hooked ends into the cherry, locate the pit and dig around gently until you loosen the pit and can pop it out of the fruit.

While this is neither the easiest nor neatest way to pit cherries, in a pinch, it can be done.

Additional Household Items To Use In A Pinch

• Metal Straw: If you happen to have a metal straw at home, it can serve double-duty and not just be used to sip a cool drink. The sturdiness of a metal straw makes it an effective tool for pitting cherries. With a firm grip, simply push the straw through the center of the cherry until the pit pops out the other side. You may end up with a few broken cherries, but, depending on the recipe, this may not matter.
• Metal Skewer: Use it like you would a paper clip—insert it and dig it around the pit until it’s loosened and able to slide out.
• Your Hands: If all other methods fail, you can pit cherries using your own hands. This is the messiest method and is likely to result in some smooshed cherries, but it can be a fun experience too. Hold the whole cherry by the stem (if still intact, if not, hold it at the top) and use your other hand to squeeze the cherry and push the pit out the other side. Like we said, it’s certainly not the neatest, most efficient way of doing things, but it works.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Take it slow. As we mentioned previously, pitting cherries can feel like a tedious task and the biggest thing to watch out for is moving too quickly or carelessly and not taking time to ensure all pits have been removed. A cherry pie with a stray unpitted cherry or two can cause quite a surprise to the unsuspecting eater at best and serious dental damage at worst. 
• Be prepared for a little imperfection. And using other kitchen tools instead of a cherry pitter can result in less-than-perfect looking cherries, so if you plan to utilize this tasty stone fruit often, do yourself a favor and buy a cherry pitter.