Have you ever had too many cherries to eat in one sitting and wanted to freeze some for rainy days and smoothies? Or wanted to make cherry pie from fresh cherries without choking on those pits? I know pitting cherries takes forever and stains your hands in red. Grab an axe and look like a psychopath right now. Or. Orrrr, grab a straw and learn how to pit cherries the right way – the easiest way in 10-15 minutes. With this new discovery of mine, those cherry pits pop out like this. I snapped my fingers.
Whether you’re pitting sweet or tart cherries, this “method” will work and is pretty easy and quick. Like a few days ago, I thought it would take at least an hour to pit a huge bag of tart cherries from my neighbor. But it turned out – not more than 10-15 minutes. Not that I’m counting.
It was actually pretty relaxing and kinda fun. Remember fun is different for everyone. But now I’ve got a huge bag of tart cherries in my freezer. Just make sure that the fruits are ripe before trying to pit them. Now let’s get into it!
How To Prepare Cherries For Pitting
Before starting to pit the cherries, make sure to have them sparkling clean first.
I usually just put them in a huge bowl and submerge them under water and wash with my hands, swirling around and around.
Then drain that water off and start taking out the cherries that aren’t going to make it. That means, cherries that are too bruised, maybe even a bit moldy. Throw these out and start removing the stems, leaves, whatever you don’t want there. Give those delicious red fruits another good rinse and let’s start pitting!
How To Pit Cherries
To pit cherries you need a firm straw – I had an old reusable plastic straw and two more bowls. One to put the pitted fruits in and another one for the pits. If you wish to not stain your hands, you can also put on plastic gloves. I didn’t because I always forget, but something to keep in mind in case you don’t want to look suspicious to detectives.
Now, grab a cherry and push with the straw right through the part where the stem was. The pit should come right out.
And we come to the part where it gets really efficient.
Instead of putting the pitted cherry into the bowl, grab another cherry and pit it in the same way. Keep doing this as if you’re making cherry skewers on a straw.
Once there’s no more space, gently push the cherries into the bowl.
Repeat this until you’ve pitted everything!
You can’t tell me this wasn’t fun haha.
What To Do With Pitted Cherries
Once the scary pits are out, you can freeze the cherries as described here or use them in different cherry recipes, here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy those fruits other than just eating them:
- Healthy Cherry Crumble
- Easy Cherry Smoothie
- Chocolate Muffins with Cherries
- On top of yogurt, chia pudding or overnight oats with some nuts
More Easy Kitchen Tips
Well, I hope by now you’ve pitted your first few cherries successfully! For more tips in the kitchen, check out these:
How To Pit Cherries In 10 Minutes
Learn how to pit cherries in 10 minutes to use in your favorite cherry recipes! You need this when you have loads of ripe fresh cherries!
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh cherries
Instructions
- Wash the cherries thoroughly and remove stems and bad fruits.
- To pit cherries you need a firm straw - I had an old reusable plastic straw and two more bowls. One to put the pitted fruits in and another one for the pits. If you wish to not stain your hands, you can also put on plastic gloves.
- Grab a cherry and push with the straw right through the part where the stem was. The pit should come right out.
- And we come to the part where it gets really efficient. Instead of putting the pitted cherry into the bowl, grab another cherry and pit it in the same way.
- Keep doing this as if you're making cherry skewers on a straw.
- Once there's no more space on the skewer, gently push the cherries into the bowl.
- Repeat this until you've pitted everything!
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 92Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 0mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 3gSugar 19gProtein 2g