Quick method for pitting cherries

I bought a bag of cherries from the store the other day. I thought it would be a good snack for the kids during a little picnic. I went to the drawer for a combination tool that minces garlic and pits cherries. I can state firmly that this tool is horrible. The pitting portion of the tool is in between the handles making it very awkward to use. It also only managed to hit the pit about 25% of the time.

So, I proceeded to rummage through our kitchen drawers for a chopstick. I had seen tv shows where the chef had used a chopstick to remove the pits. I had tried this method in the past and it too left a lot to be desired. However, during my search I found a tool that worked very well.

What I found was the sleeve from an instant read thermometer. The thermometer itself has been missing in action now for a few weeks, but the sleeve itself remained. I simply took the end centered it over the stem end (after removing the stem) and pushed. The sleeve itself slid through the cherries quite easily. I also pushed 100% of the cherry pits from the 30 or so that I was preparing for the picnic. It seems that the hollow tool served to capture the pit in the recess preventing the pit from sliding to one side.

Pitting cherries is still time consuming but my hollow tube worked much better than the tool purchased and was easy to use.