A Water Bottle Is All You Need To Pit Cherries In A Flash

Your plan for making sour cherry cheesecake bars with fresh instead of frozen fruits started out great, but you just overlooked one small thing — those pesky little pits. Now, you are faced with a daunting and tedious task of pitting dozens of cherries. That dessert might start to sound like more trouble than it is worth, but fortunately, TikTok comes to the rescue once again. There is a great hack for removing the pits from cherries with ease using nothing more than items you probably already have lying around at home.

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First, you need a water bottle. You can use any kind you like as long as it has a top that is just a bit smaller than a cherry. Glass, metal, or disposable plastic will all work just fine. The fruit should be able to balance easily on the opening of the bottle without falling through. Place the cherry there with the dimpled top facing up. Now, grab a chopstick. All you have to do is push the chopstick down straight through the top of the cherry where the stem used to be attached. The pit will be forced out into the water bottle, and you will be left with perfectly pitted fruit.

A plastic water bottle and chopstick are likely the fastest option when you do not have a cherry pitter. The cherry stays securely in place, the pit is removed in one swift motion, the seeds are easily collected, the fruit stays intact, and you don't get juice all over your hands and work surface. Instead of a chopstick, a metal straw, sturdy skewer, or pastry tip would also work here.

If for some reason you have none of these items but do have random office supplies on hand, you can still get the job done. Take a paperclip and unfold it so it forms an S-shape. Then, press the curved edge into the cherry through the stem side. Rotate the clip to detach the seed from the flesh of the fruit, and pull it back up to bring it out.

You have more options if you are not concerned with messing up the shape of the cherry, like if you want to make a fruit shrub syrup or a cinnamon-scented compote for these cherry turnovers. In that case, the best method is to gently crush the cherries with the flat side of a knife as if you were pitting olives. Then, use your fingers to separate the fruit from the pit. If they are ripe enough, you don't even need to squash them with a knife. Just use your hands, and do your best not to eat them all as you go!