Sour cherries are softer and more delicate than sweet varieties, which makes pitting them both easier and messier. The flesh gives way quickly, so the right technique matters if you want intact fruit rather than cherry pulp. Whether you’re working through a few cups for a clafoutis or processing pounds for jam, here’s how to get the pits out efficiently.
Why Sour Cherries Need a Gentle Touch
Sour cherries (like Montmorency or Morello) have thinner skin and softer flesh than Bing or Rainier cherries. That means they bruise and tear more easily during pitting. The upside is that the pit separates from the flesh cleanly, with less resistance. The downside is that juice goes everywhere. Work over a bowl, wear an apron you don’t care about, and accept that your hands will be stained red for a day or two.
Cold cherries hold their shape better than room-temperature ones. If you’ve just picked or bought a big haul, refrigerate them for at least an hour before you start pitting. This firms up the flesh slightly and reduces the amount of juice that escapes when you push through.
Using a Handheld Cherry Pitter
A handheld cherry pitter is the most common tool for the job, and it works well for small to medium batches. It operates like a stapler or a single-hole punch: you place the cherry in a cradle, squeeze the handles together, and a plunger pushes the pit out through the bottom. Start by twisting off the stem. Then set the cherry on its side in the open cup of the pitter with the stem end facing up. Press the clamp firmly and release quickly. The pit drops out cleanly.
For sour cherries specifically, a quick, decisive squeeze works better than a slow press. Hesitating mid-squeeze can crush the fruit instead of punching through it. You’ll get into a rhythm fast, and a single handheld pitter can move through a couple of pounds in 15 to 20 minutes.
Multi-Cherry and Tabletop Pitters
If you’re dealing with five pounds or more, a tabletop or plunger-style pitter saves significant time. These sit on your counter, often with non-slip feet or a clamp to hold them steady, and pit multiple cherries at once. Some models hold up to six or seven cherries in a tray. You load the fruit, press a plunger down by hand, and the pits drop into a removable container below.
These are particularly good for sour cherries because the softer fruit requires less force, meaning you’re less likely to jam the mechanism. The tradeoff is that multi-cherry pitters occasionally miss a pit or leave a fragment behind, especially if a cherry is sitting slightly off-center. Do a quick visual check of each batch as it comes through, and squeeze any suspicious-looking cherries between your fingers to feel for leftover pit pieces.
Pitting Without a Dedicated Tool
You don’t need a cherry pitter to get the job done. Three household items work surprisingly well.
- Sturdy straw and a bottle: Set the cherry on top of a narrow-necked bottle (a beer bottle or soda bottle works perfectly). Push a thick straw or chopstick straight down through the bottom of the cherry, driving the pit out through the stem end. The pit falls into the bottle, and the cherry stays on top. This is the cleanest no-tool method for sour cherries because the bottle supports the fruit so it doesn’t collapse.
- Paperclip: Unfold a large paperclip so one curved end is exposed. Push the curved end into the stem bowl of the cherry, hook it around the pit, and scoop it out. This works but is slow and messy, better suited to a handful of cherries than a big batch.
- Paring knife: Slice the cherry in half along its seam, twist the halves apart, and flick the pit out with the tip of the knife. This is the most destructive method, but if the fruit is headed for jam or sauce anyway, it doesn’t matter.
Of these, the bottle-and-straw method is the fastest for someone without a pitter. Use a straw made of metal or hard plastic. Thin paper straws will buckle after a few cherries.
Keeping the Mess Under Control
Sour cherry juice stains fabric, wood cutting boards, and light-colored countertops. A few simple precautions save cleanup time. Work inside a large rimmed baking sheet to catch splatter. Place your collection bowl and pit bowl both inside the sheet. Some people wear disposable gloves, though they make it harder to grip slippery fruit.
If you’re pitting into a bowl for later use, toss the pitted cherries with a small amount of sugar as you go. This draws out juice in a controlled way and keeps the fruit from turning brown. For every pound of pitted sour cherries, a quarter cup of sugar is enough to get the process started. You can adjust sweetness later in your recipe.
Handling the Pits Safely
Cherry pits contain a compound called amygdalin, which your body converts into cyanide if the pit is crushed or chewed. Whole, intact pits that are accidentally swallowed pass through harmlessly. The concern is with broken pits. If you’re blending pitted cherries in a food processor or blender, make sure every pit is removed first. A single missed pit that gets pulverized into a smoothie or sauce isn’t a medical emergency, but it’s worth being thorough, especially if you’re preparing food for children.
Discard pits in the trash rather than a compost bin that pets or wildlife can access. Crushing large quantities of pits (as some people do to make cherry kernel oil at home) requires proper knowledge of safe processing. For most home cooks, the pits simply go in the garbage.
Getting the Best Results for Baking and Preserving
Sour cherries are a short-season fruit, so most people pit them in bulk and freeze or preserve the results. If you’re freezing, spread the pitted cherries in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze them solid before transferring to bags. This prevents them from clumping into a solid block. Frozen sour cherries keep well for about a year.
For pie filling, a bit of flesh damage from pitting actually helps. Torn cherries release their juice faster when they cook, giving you a thicker, more cohesive filling. For preserves and jam, the same principle applies. If you’re making something where appearance matters, like a cherry tart with whole fruit on top, work slowly with a handheld pitter and choose the firmest cherries in your batch for the visible layer.