Kitchen Ninja: Hacking A Cherry Pitter

Inspired by conversations on the FOOD52 Hotline, we're sharing tips and tricks that make navigating all of our kitchens easier and more fun. Today, we're showing you how to pit cherries without a cherry pitter. 

It's cherry season! Time for cherry pie, a clafoutis, or a few boozy sour cherries garnishing a cocktail. All of those things are great if you happen to have a cherry pitter but if you don't, you're in for a bit of work that results in stained hands.

>>RELATED: Learn everything you need to know about cherries.

Sure, a pitter is an easy accessory to pick up but not everyone likes to buy single-purpose kitchen tools. And why bother when you can easily hack one? Today we're sharing an easy and gadget-free way to hack a cherry pitter. If you've got an empty beer bottle and a chop stick, you can pit a cherry. 

Get A Small Bottle

• • • • • All you need is an empty bottle with a small mouth. A beer bottle is perfect -- we're just using this little cutie because, well, it's cute.

Share the bounty -- here are some of our favorite cherry recipes. How do you cook and preserve cherries?

Fool

Shortbread

Torte

 

Photos by James Ransom

 

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Comments

[JC Boomer]

06:38 PM on 07/29/2012

Just spend the $5 and get yourself a cherry pitter, its much faster and neater. If you can afford the cherries you can afford the cherry pitter.

[Grada3784]

03:14 AM on 07/26/2012

America's Test Kitchen episode on cherry pie mentioned a $250 cherry pitter I just have to get.

[Pema]

06:46 PM on 07/25/2012

perfect i have a huge bag of fresh cherries and lots of chopsticks!

[wildwildwest]

05:53 PM on 07/25/2012

Now you tell me. After both hands are beautiful, cherry red.

[maigesheng]

05:42 PM on 07/25/2012

You know what else works? Putting the cherry in your mouth, and spitting the seed out like a regular human being, who doesnt need to buy silly trinkets to do simple little jobs.

Corn holders?? Really???

[emerson7]

05:17 PM on 07/26/2012

lol...well, if that's the way you pit your cherries, i'm certainly not eating any of your cherry pies!

[rwgunn]

08:33 PM on 07/26/2012

She uses the same method for curing dear hides. I saw it on National Geographic one year. Hell on the teeth but who cares, right?

[maigesheng]

08:51 PM on 07/26/2012

ahhhh cherry pie. I forgot.