Pitting cherries is the job that puts us off preserving every single year. An hour and a half with a cherry pitter for 2 kg of sour cherries, sticky fingers, stained trousers and, in the end, squashed halves instead of whole cherries. In the Thermomix®, the same quantity takes two minutes. The stones end up neatly in the sieve, and the fruit and juice go straight into cherry jam, cherry syrup or cherry compote.
We have been doing it this way for years, as soon as the sour cherry season kicks off at the end of June. We did not believe it would actually work at first. It sounds like one of those internet tricks that leave you with a bowl of cherry puree instead of pitted fruit. In practice, though, the method is reliably effective when you choose the right settings and pay attention to a few details.
Pitting Cherries in the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 2 ✓
- 1500 g cherries
- 1 lemon
Instructions 0 / 2
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1
Pit the cherries.
Add the cherries and lemon juice to the mixing bowl and pit for 3 minutes / reverse direction / speed 4.
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2
Sieve the cherries.
Sieve the cherries through the simmering basket, the Varoma, or another coarse sieve. The stones will remain in the sieve, so you can continue working with the juice and the cherries.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why reverse direction separates the stone from the flesh
Reverse direction is the key. In normal forward direction, the blades work with the sharp cutting edge leading. That would reduce the cherries to puree within seconds. In reverse direction, the blades run with the blunt back edge leading and press the cherries gently around the stones. Speed 4 for 3 minutes is enough to separate the flesh from the stones without completely crushing the cherries.
We add 1,500 g of cherries and the juice of one lemon to the mixing bowl and run 3 minutes / reverse direction / speed 4. The lemon juice serves two purposes: it keeps the colour stable because the flesh oxidises as soon as the skin breaks. The acidity also makes it slightly easier to release the stone from the flesh. Anyone who leaves out the lemon will get a quickly browning cherry juice, which looks particularly unpleasant in hot cherries or pale cherry sauces.
Which cherries work with this method
We have tried the method with all common varieties. Sour cherries and Morello cherries work best because their flesh is soft enough and separates cleanly from the stone. Sweet cherries also work, but often need the full 3 minutes because the flesh clings more firmly to the stone. We prefer to pit firm bigarreau cherries by hand or push the stones out with a thick trussing needle, as the flesh is too firm and does not separate cleanly.
Ripeness matters. Overripe, mushy cherries will turn to puree rather than pitted fruit. Very firm, almost unripe cherries take too long in the mixing bowl and still do not separate cleanly. The sweet spot is cherries that are fully ripe and give slightly when pressed, but are not yet soft. Exactly the stage we want for jam anyway.
Sieving rather than blending: the second critical step
After 3 minutes, the mixing bowl contains a mixture of halved cherries, juice and loosened stones. This is the step where many instructions become vague. We tip the entire mixture through the simmering basket or the Varoma into a bowl. The stones remain in the sieve at the top, and the juice and flesh flow through. If you do not have a suitable sieve, use a coarse kitchen sieve with a mesh size of around 4 mm. Finer sieves hold back the flesh and are useless here.
At the end, only the stones remain in the sieve, sometimes with thin scraps of flesh. We discard those. If the odd whole cherry with its stone slips through, it is usually one of the firmer sweet cherries. We sort those out by hand or give them another 30 seconds at reverse direction / speed 4 in the mixing bowl.
What we have learnt about quantities
1,500 g of cherries is the upper limit for one batch in the TM5® and TM6®. The TM31® handles 1,000 g cleanly; more becomes too cramped and some stones will not be released. Anyone with a larger quantity should work in two batches. That takes four minutes in total and is still faster than a cherry pitter for half the quantity.
For smaller quantities below 500 g, the method is less reliable because the cherries have too little friction in the large mixing bowl. For 300 g of cherries, the effort is not worth it, and we prefer to pit them by hand using an olive stoner.
What used to go wrong for us
Wrong speed selected. At speed 5 or 6, the cherries are chopped up and the stones are pulverised along with them, making the juice taste bitter. Speed 4 is the upper limit. If in doubt, start at speed 3 for 4 minutes. It takes a little longer but is gentler on the fruit.
Normal direction instead of reverse direction. We forgot once and ended up with 1.5 litres of cherry puree containing fine stone fragments. Completely unusable, because the fragments crunch in the mouth and cannot be sieved out. Check the reverse direction arrow on the display before pressing start.
Running it too long. 5 minutes is too much. The skins break down, the flesh goes mushy and the juice becomes cloudy. Three minutes is the ideal time, four only for very firm cherries. Better to run it shorter and check after 2 minutes how far the process has progressed.
What to use the pitted cherries for
This method does not produce whole, intact cherry halves. Anyone wanting to steep cherries in schnapps or use them as decoration on a cake should still reach for a cherry pitter. For everything else, the Thermomix® method is spot on: cherry jam, cherry syrup, cherry compote, sauces, cake fillings and of course classic hot cherries with vanilla ice cream. Even for a cherry cake with crumble topping or a classic cherry streusel cake, the slightly broken-up fruit is perfectly adequate, as it softens during baking anyway.
We do not throw away the juice produced during pitting. It is more intense than any shop-bought cherry juice and works well as a base for a cherry sorbet, a cherry slush or simply a splash in sparkling water on hot days.
How long the result keeps
We process the pitted cherries on the same day. In the fridge, they keep for two days in an airtight container before they start to ferment. Anyone who cannot use the quantity straight away should freeze the pitted cherries with their juice in portions. In the freezer, they keep for 12 months and form the basis for jam or compote in winter when the fresh season is over. Best defrosted overnight in the fridge: less juice escapes and the flesh stays firmer.
Which method is worth it: Thermomix®, straw, bottle or pitter
Also worth a try: Lemon Salt with the Thermomix®.
Four methods circulate online, and each has its place. A cherry pitter is the first choice when the cherries need to stay whole, for example for rumtopf, cake decoration or cherries preserved in liqueur. The straw or bottle trick with a chopstick works from 200 g upwards and produces the cleanest whole fruit, but becomes a test of patience with two kilos of sour cherries. The Thermomix® method beats all others from 800 g onwards for jam, syrup, compote and cake fillings, where broken-up cherries are no problem anyway. Simple rule: if presentation matters, use the pitter. If speed at large quantities is the priority, the mixing bowl wins every time.
More cherry recipes with the Thermomix®: Hot Cherries, Cherry Jam, Cherry Syrup and Cherry Compote.
