The Best Cherry Pitter

Buying Guide

Whether you enjoy baking fresh cherry pies, creating your own homemade jam or preparing Shirley Temples to share with a few friends, you’ll want to invest in a cherry pitter. This handy kitchen tool does all the hard work for you, while also significantly cutting down your food prep time.

Before selecting a cherry pitter, you’ll need to determine how many cherries you typically use in a recipe. If you don’t bake that often or you only create dishes that call for a small number of cherries, then a simple single pitter will do. Avid bakers and canners, however, will want to opt for a model that can de-stone multiple cherries at a time.

Most cherry pitters are manual. Some require more pressure than others to operate. Individuals with arthritis or other types of joint pain will want to look for a cherry pitter like the Progressive Prepworks Cherry-It Cherry Pitter. This unit has a non-skin bottom to hold it in place. It also requires little effort to remove the pits from the cherries.

To reduce the amount of mess in your kitchen, you may want to go with a cherry pitter that has a splatter guard. Otherwise, some juice may squirt out from the cherry as the inner prongs dislodge the pit.

Another important feature to keep an eye out for is a removable base that catches the pits as they are released from the cherry pitter. For example, there are options that have a large container attached to the pitter. After you’ve finished removing the pits from your cherries, you can release the container and empty it into a trash can.

Individuals who live in a small apartment or have limited storage would do well with a compact cherry pitter. The pitter may even come in a decorative box that would make it a great housewarming gift.

• If your cherry pitter doesn’t have a splash guard, you’ll need to hold it over a bowl or kitchen sink. It’s also advisable that you not wear white, as any juice that gets on your clothes can leave a stain.
• It is important to note that cherry pitters made using white plastic can become stained by the red cherry juice.
• Store pitters with sharp shears away from the reach of small children.
• Some chutes are too low for use with tall bowls.
• Take a look at the cherry pitter’s chute and choose one based on the size of the cherries you typically buy, as large cherries and olives can get stuck in a small chute, while small cherries fall right through large chutes.
• Review the product label to determine who to best clean the cherry pitter. While some are dishwasher safe, others must be hand washed using dish soap and water.
• Both the construction material and the number of cherries a cherry pitter can handle at one time affect the overall price of a stoner. Since the Progressive Prepworks Cherry-It Cherry Pitter is made out of plastic, it costs a bit less than then those made out of iron. You’ll find the units that remove multiple pits at once tend to have similar prices.