How to Pit Cherries Without a Pitter

By Kitchenistic

14 Nov 2019

Pitting cherries without a cherry pitter may appear to be a grueling process, but it does not have to be if you know how to do it properly. Removing the seed can take time but it is often worth the effort. You are able to pit cherries easily at home so just read on to discover how to do it.

Choosing Your Cherries

You can of course buy pitless cherries, but these are made rather than grown and seedless cherries are not everybody’s first choice. More often than not, the cherries in your local store are best when located in the fresh produce isle. What you do need to do is ensure that you select fresh, really ripe cherries which are easier to prepare without using a cherry pitter. When you have purchased a large amount of cherries and are pitting them on your own, unless you have chosen really ripe cherries, be prepared for pitting cherries to take time. Likewise, you need to remember that ripe cherries should be really juicy, and their juice will leave stains.

Cherries and cherry pits

Preparing Your Cherries For Pitting

Rinse your juicy cherries with cold water and place them in a bowl. Tug to remove the stems of every cherry. Place your bowl next to a cutting board on the countertop. You will need to set up some sort of cutting mat on your cutting board which can be thrown away which can save you lots of clean up time.

How To Pit Cherries Without A Cherry Pitter

Pit cherries using a paper clip. You need to start by unbending your paper clip. It is important that you wash the paper clip with warm soapy water before you use it. Before you pit them, you have to de-stem the cherries first. When ready you need to simply push one end of the straightened-out paper clip into the cherry. Try to push it into the centre and stick it decisively into the pit. You should then be able to push the pit out through the cherry.
Pit cherries using tweezers. Admittedly you will probably only want to be using tweezers that have not been used for anything else so you may need to buy them specifically for this purpose. They can make the job of pitting cherries a quicker job however as you can just grab the pit out.
Pit cherries using a straw. You can try using one end of a clean plastic straw. Just push it into the middle of cherry to push the pit out. This should leave you with almost no waste.
Pit cherries using a chopstick. You will be able to hit the pit with a pointed chopstick with slightly more accuracy that when using any of the other methods. Simply try to poke the pit out using one end of the chopstick.

Overall however, the simplest, no-tools method to pit cherries is to just do it with your fingers. It will end up being the fastest, calmest, at least expensive way to pit your cherries. Just take off the stem and thrust a finger all the way through the other end of the cherry. Doing this should break up the cherry into two halves which will free the pit so you can remove it. You might want to think carefully about doing this if you have bought dark red cherries as your fingers will get covered in juice.

Any of the above methods that you chose to pit cherries without a pitter should work well When you have finished with one cherry you can simply dispose of the pit and repeat this process a number of times with the remaining cherries until they are all done. Once they have had their pits removed, they will be ready to include in a lot of your favorite recipes such as baked in a pie or added to a healthy smoothie.

Wooden board with ripe cherries on table

Pitting cherries is a great task to do if you are lucky enough to have lots of cherries to eat. By using one of the techniques above, pit as many cherries as you can and pop them in the freezer to use at a later date in your recipes.

You are now ready to understand how to pit cherries without a pitter. And by far the easiest way to pit a cherry is with a little time and patience. You only require a few simple kitchen items to make the job happen like a straw or a chopstick and soon you will have fresh cherries ready to eat.