If you don’t have a cherry pitter or cherry stoner on hand and you’re wanting to use fresh cherries in a delicious recipe, take heart, we have a simple do it yourself fix that will have you cooking in no time with fresh, whole cherries.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with a number of different ways to pit cherries. I used to have a great little gadget called a cherry pitter, but alas, it wore out after a couple of seasons.
When we lived up north we used to make a trip just before the 4th of July to pick our own cherries at King Orchards in Central Lake Michigan. They have an absolutely amazing Cherry Salsa recipe which I have tried (unsuccessfully) for years to duplicate.
In any case, we came up with this super easy method of pitting cherries by hand using what we had in our kitchen, we hope that it makes your job easier too!
How to Pit Cherries
You’ll Need:
a Funnel
a Plate
a bowl
fresh cherries
Invert the funnel over a plate. Place the cherry (stem side down on the funnel, you don’t even have to remove the stem first), and then press gently with your thumb or finger. The seed will pop out of the cherry and drop to the plate below. Remove the cherry, place it in the bowl and repeat until you have pitted all of the cherries.
Over the years we’ve heard of these interesting methods as well, although they seem to lose a lot of the juice and make a considerable mess:
- Use a straw, simply press the straw/pipe through the top of the cherry (the bit you remove the stalk from) and then use it to push the seed out.
- Using a hairpin, similar to the paper clip. You insert the curved end through the top and scoop the seed out
- Using the top end of a long vegetable peeler, scoop the seed out.
Love this! Thank you!
i will probably try this soon, i am planning on trying to get a lot of cherries this season.
thanks for the great idea! 🙂
i bought a bag of cherries this weekend and at walmart there was a cherry pitter for $12. I’m so glad to have a resource like budget101 and the great tips. Thank you!
what a great idea! i already keep a small funnel in my kitchen. i’d never considered using it for a cherry pitter.
now i can get double the use out of one gadget and save the money i would have spent on the cherry pitter. thanks!
wow! some of the simplest things are the best. great idea.
love this, thank you, we ended up just eating the cherries i bought last year instead of putting them up as planned. will be giving this a try real soon
Great idea with funnel. Used a straw once but very messy.