Cherries jubilee
On this week’s episode of 'The Pitt' …
I love fresh cherries. Even though I was scarred by that horrific scene in “The Witches of Eastwick” involving cursed cherries, I still can’t resist the little red jewels when they show up in the grocery store. So when I found cherries on sale last week, I grabbed a whole bunch of them.
I didn’t realize quite how many cherries there were until I unpackaged them to wash them. I also discovered quite a few mushy ones, which could explain why they were on sale.
I found myself confronted by a very large quantity of fruit that was quickly going bad. I considered my options.
1. Eat cherries until I make myself sick.
2. Freeze them.
3. Bake a cherry crisp.
Dessert won out, as it always does.
I had never baked with fresh cherries, but hey, it’s never too late to learn a new skill, right? I mean, how hard could it be to pit a cherry?
I figured I shouldn’t just pit them in my mouth, which is how I usually do it.
I pulled out my “Cook’s Illustrated” cookbook. It’s all about the science of cooking. I figured their cherry pie recipe might tell me how to get the pits out.
Nope. “Use 4 cups of canned cherries.”
I checked another cookbook.
“Use frozen unsweetened cherries.”
This did not bode well.
I googled how to pit cherries. I found a woman who tested six different methods, from “just tear them apart with your fingers” to the “viral straw method.” (Poke a straw through the middle of a cherry and push out the pit.)
The method that worked best for her? A cherry pitter.
I don’t own a cherry pitter. I didn’t have time to run to the store to buy a cherry pitter. I opted to try the straw thing.
Turns out it is not as easy to push a straw through a cherry as you might think. Plus it mangles the poor cherry.
I went back to basics, pulled out my paring knife and started slicing into cherries.
It was messy. Cherry juice splattered everywhere. My cutting board looked like a murder scene.
It was tedious. I could feel my oven glaring at me and tapping its fingers. “You know I’ve been pre-heating over here for 30 minutes, right?”
Had I really been standing here cutting up cherries for 30 minutes?
I guess I did have time to run out to buy a cherry pitter.