cherry-pitter

cherry-pitter (plural cherry-pitters)

1. Alternative form of cherry pitter.
   • 1938 August 11, Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein, “Staying Afloat during the 1930s”, in Ellen FitzSimmons Steinberg, editor, Irma: A Chicago Woman’s Story, 1871–1966, Iowa City, Ia.: University of Iowa Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 136:

     Essie brought me a cherry-pitter and some apricot jam and I gave her a patent bottle cover and one veal chop I did not need and so we were even.

   • 1975, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Joy of Cooking, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., published 1980, →ISBN, page 134, column 2:

     Mark Twain claimed that women, if given enough time and hairpins, could build a battleship. Hairpins, also mighty useful as cherry-pitters, are growing scarce. You may prefer to substitute a fresh, strong pen point inserted in a clean holder—although these accessories, too, we regret to report, are harder and harder to come across, as is a cherry-pitter like the one shown on 798.

   • 1980, David Wagoner, The Hanging Garden, Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Press, Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 37:

     In a room off the hallway he saw an old peach-peeler and a cherry-pitter and other kitchen gadgets on display, and he headed for them, feeling on the right track.

   • 1982, Norma M. MacRae, Canning and Preserving without Sugar, Seattle, Wash.: Pacific Search Press, →ISBN, page 38:

     Cherries: Wash and dry fruit. Remove stems and pits (buy a cherry-pitter at a kitchen supply store).

   • 1989, Marlene Brown, International Produce Cookbook & Guide: Recipes plus Buying & Storing Information, Los Angeles, Calif.: HPBooks, →ISBN, page 31:

     Use a cherry-pitter, available at kitchen supply shops, or the tip of a vegetable peeler to remove pits.

   • 1989, Deborah Edwards Sakach, Timothy J. Sakach, The Official Guide to American Historic Inns, 2nd edition, Dana Point, Calif.: Association of American Historic Inns, →ISBN, page 173, column 3:

     There is also an unusual collection of old appliances including a cherry-pitter, mincer, and dough maker collected by Sam, a former household appliance designer.

   • 1991, Rosemary Barron, Flavors of Greece, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 397:

     Working over a bowl to catch any juices, remove the pits from the cherries with a cherry-pitter or small paring knife.

   • 1994, Debra Stark, Cooking at The Natural Gourmet, Lexington, Mass.: Scarecrow Enterprises, →ISBN, page 146:

     Use a cherry-pitter, a handy gadget, to plunge pits out of cherries.

   • 1995, Landoll, Inc., America’s Best Chicken Recipes, Ashland, Oh.: Coombe Books Ltd., →ISBN, page 16, column 2:

     To pit the olives, roll them on a flat surface to loosen the stones and then use a swivel vegetable peeler to extract them. Alternatively use a cherry-pitter.

   • 1995, Daniel C[lement] Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 232:

     The important feature in these arguments is the reliance on optimality considerations; it counts against the hypothesis that something is a cherry-pitter, for instance, if it would have been a demonstrably inferior cherry-pitter. Occasionally, an artifact loses its original function and takes on a new one.

   • 1996, Anne Marshall, The World’s Healthiest Food, New York, N.Y.: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, →ISBN, page 183:

     Pit the cherries with a cherry-pitter or the point of a vegetable knife.

   • 1998, Michael T. Murray, The Complete Book of Juicing: Your Delicious Guide to Youthful Vitality, Rocklin, Calif.: Prima Health, →ISBN, page 87:

     Remove the stems and use a cherry-pitter or cut the cherries in half to remove the pit.

   • 1999, Jim Quinn, “Recipes for Dummies”, in Holly Hughes, editor, Best Food Writing 2000, New York, N.Y.: Marlowe & Company and Balliett & Fitzgerald Inc., published 2000, page 278:

     If you buy cherries, you will need a cherry-pitter. This little chrome invention looks something like a dental tool and something like a debraining forceps.

   • 2000 January, Cory Doctorow, “A Place So Foreign”, in Scott Edelman, editor, Science Fiction Age, volume 8, number 2, Reston, Va.: Sovereign Media Co., Inc., →ISSN, page 41, column 2:

     There were the crates full of dangerous, coal-fired machines—an automatic clothes-washing machine, a cherry-pitter, and other devices whose nature I couldn’t even guess at.

   • 2001, Linda S. Levstik, Keith C. Barton, Doing History: Investigating with Children in Elementary and Middle Schools, 2nd edition, Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, →ISBN, page 78:

     While working on their Artifact Think Sheets (Fig. 7.1), students constantly played with the objects—rubbing a shaving-cream brush on their skin, flipping the handle of a cherry-pitter back and forth, fidgeting with an old camera to see how it worked, using a cuff-maker to create creases in paper (again and again and again).

   • 2002, Nicols Fox, Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives, Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, →ISBN, page 261:

     Machines were no longer of any real interest, and technological artifacts could be placed in museums without raising a desire for them in any viewer. They were simply curious objects from the past, like a tomahawk or a cherry-pitter that no one today really wants to use.

   • 2004, Sarah Messer, Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England’s Oldest Continuously Lived-In House, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, page 117:

     Though my father had gone to great pains after the fire to restore all of the items that Richard Warren Hatch had given him, we were also a family of kids with modern kid needs. Next to the cupboard of breakfast cereal hung a Betty lamp, a wick-snipper, a cherry-pitter. The more my father collected and replaced, the more extreme the juxtaposition became: […]

   • 2005, Susannah Blake, Squeeze Out: 80 Juices to Extract the Best for Your Life, London: MQ Publications, →ISBN, page 25:

     Remove the pits from the cherries using a cherry-pitter, or halve and gently pull out the pit.

   • 2006, Fruit: Recipes for Lunch, Brunch, Desserts, and More, London, New York, N.Y.: Ryland Peters & Small, →ISBN, page 22:

     If you are planning to pit a lot of cherries, buy a cherry-pitter from a good kitchenware shop—it will save you a lot of time.

   • 2009, Susie Norris, Chocolate Bliss: Sensuous Recipes, Spa Treatments, and Other Divine Indulgences, New York, N.Y.: Celestial Arts, →ISBN, page 59:

     By the way, here are three good ways to pit a cherry: […] use a cherry-pitter carried by some gourmet kitchen stores—a special tool invented just for this job!

   • 2009, Harry Eastwood, Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache, London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 123:

     YOU WILL NEED […] a cherry-pitter (or a small knife and a lot of patience)

   • 2010, Jessica Harper, The Crabby Cook Cookbook: 135 Almost-Effortless Recipes Plus Survival Tips, New York, N.Y.: Workman Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 203:

     You’ve got to pit a whole bunch of cherries, which is not the kind of task crabby cooks are drawn to. But here’s a tip: Until Apple makes an app that’ll do the job for you, get yourself a cherry-pitter.

   • 2015, Mark Bittman, Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Matrix: More Than 700 Simple Recipes and Techniques to Mix and Match for Endless Possibilities, New York, N.Y.: Pam Krauss Books, →ISBN, page 252, column 2:

     A cherry-pitter is handy for large quantities, and it works nicely on olives, too.

   • 2017, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, London: Bloomsbury Circus, →ISBN, page 92:

     He placed a cherry in his mouth, considered kissing her, the cherry passing between them, but settled for watching her instead, enjoying her evident satisfaction at the clean workings of the cherry-pitter she’d mocked not an hour earlier as an accessory of the rich who don’t know what else to do with their money. ‘It’s a cherry-pitter. It pits cherries. How is that some wild extravagance?’