I realized that when I posted the cherry recipes for my neighbors, I didn’t offer any instructions for how to pit the cherries. There are cherry pitting gadgets, which also seem to work well for olives, but the one I have never seemed to work at all. If you have the drawer space, or if you have a cherry tree, it probably pays to look into buying one. For those of you who want a less elegant but equally effective method, all you need is an ordinary funnel.
So while there are still some cherries left on their trees, here’s a quick tutorial on how to get the pits out of the cherries while using a funnel.
Yes, it’s as messy as it looks.
The Setup
Invert a small funnel on a cutting board. Did I mention the messy?
Setting The Cherry
Position the stem end of the cherry over the spout of the funnel.
Extracting The Pit
Press down steadily and force the pit out of the cherry.
Success!
The cherry, pitted.
Note to self: stop biting your nails.
Seems like a real pain…Laura Ben David has an OXO cherry pitter that is amazing!
It actually goes much quicker. I should have taken a video. Maybe next week after the festival.