How Can I Pit Cherries?

There are several ways to best pit cherries: you can use the kitchen knife, a bottle and chopsticks – and even use the hairpin. All variants have one thing in common: You don’t need a machine to pit cherries. However, the result differs. Because if you use the kitchen knife or paring knife, you have to halve the cherries to then remove the stone. This is especially useful if you are not using the whole fruit. For example, if you want to pit cherries to make jam, it doesn’t matter whether you use whole or halved stone fruit – it does, however, a matter which type you use. The season of the sweet variant begins in May, while regionally grown sour varieties are only available from July. Pit cherries automatically? You can save yourself that if you buy them in a jar without a core, for example. Various recipes rely on it. Also for our Kirschmichel, for which you use more cherries.

Pitting cherries: Tricks with bottle and hair clip

Theoretically, there are devices that promise easy handling. On the other hand: pitting cherries without a machine works just as well. Even without halving the fruit. A trick: you take a chopstick or a narrow, blunt stick and an open water bottle. You hang the stem in the neck and place the cherry on it. By pushing the stick into the cherry from above, you push the pit directly into the bottle.

Stone the fruit with a hairpin or office pin just as effectively. It has to be U-shaped, so it has to be closed. In a way, you pry the core out when you drive under it. Pitting cherries by boiling them – unfortunately, that doesn’t work. However, the cooking process softens the stone fruit, making it easier to remove the pit afterward.

If you prefer to leave the pitting of cherries to a device, you can use Thermomix® in addition to special machines. Since the device will damage the fruit during the process, this method is particularly useful if you want to preserve the fruit. After coring, you have to sieve the stones with this method.

Tip: Since they do not keep for long, always use cherries as soon as possible after purchasing them.