Pitting Cherries Without a Pitter

For recipes like our Cherry Clafouti, a cherry pitter makes the pitting process quick and simple. But since not everyone owns this tool, we looked for alternatives. We tried setting the cherry on the mouth of an empty wine bottle and using a chopstick to push the pit through; fishing the pit out with a bent paper clip; and pushing the pit out by pressing the cherry on the end of an inverted funnel. In the end, we found that using a wine bottle with a straw worked best. The hollow end of a straw helped it grip the pit, and the narrow opening of the wine bottle (a beer bottle would work too) held the cherry in place while we pushed the pit through. The bottle caught the pits and juices, making cleanup easy.