As mentioned earlier - fruit has flooded the market and there are cherries galore! I bought a kilo and we just ate it - but with so many cherries I figured that something should actually be done with them - but there was the obstacle of the pits.
I spent several days wandering around different markets - the tables crowded with the multipurpose things - clothes lines, batteries, fingernail brushes - hoping I might find "something to take the stones out of cherries." No one knew what the actual instrument was called - but they all seemed to know about that sort of "thing"
Eventually a helpful person informed me that those things are "rare".
A few more inquiries and someone finally told me that cherries don't have "stones" but rather "little bones". This knowledge greatly aided my inquiries and I soon found a man - who not only knew what I wanted - but actually escorted me to a store where I could buy a cherry pitter.
On the subject of kitchen gadgets - I should mention that growing up - we never owned a cherry pitter. My mom considered it a silly kitchen gadget and that a knife works just as well. Well, my efforts with a knife were far from quick and I decided that if I ever wanted to get a pie, jam, or even ice cream sauce out of the cherries - I would need a Cherry Pitter.
Not only did I get a cherry pitter - but the lovely apparatus includes a garlic press and a nut cracker! Three silly gadgets in one but taking up a 1/3 of the space - well worth it wouldn't you say?
I soon put the pitter to the test - pitting 770 grams of cherries. out of curiosity - I then weighed the pits and the stones - 120 grams! Meaning that cherries are 15% garbage. I'm sure glad i didn't have to pick them - between the picking and the pitting - cherries would take a huge amount of time - sure make me appreciate cherry pie more.
I spent several days wandering around different markets - the tables crowded with the multipurpose things - clothes lines, batteries, fingernail brushes - hoping I might find "something to take the stones out of cherries." No one knew what the actual instrument was called - but they all seemed to know about that sort of "thing"
Eventually a helpful person informed me that those things are "rare".
A few more inquiries and someone finally told me that cherries don't have "stones" but rather "little bones". This knowledge greatly aided my inquiries and I soon found a man - who not only knew what I wanted - but actually escorted me to a store where I could buy a cherry pitter.
On the subject of kitchen gadgets - I should mention that growing up - we never owned a cherry pitter. My mom considered it a silly kitchen gadget and that a knife works just as well. Well, my efforts with a knife were far from quick and I decided that if I ever wanted to get a pie, jam, or even ice cream sauce out of the cherries - I would need a Cherry Pitter.
Not only did I get a cherry pitter - but the lovely apparatus includes a garlic press and a nut cracker! Three silly gadgets in one but taking up a 1/3 of the space - well worth it wouldn't you say?
I soon put the pitter to the test - pitting 770 grams of cherries. out of curiosity - I then weighed the pits and the stones - 120 grams! Meaning that cherries are 15% garbage. I'm sure glad i didn't have to pick them - between the picking and the pitting - cherries would take a huge amount of time - sure make me appreciate cherry pie more.
2 comments:
Cherries here were expensive and only around for a short time. I felt very homesick for my "buying them by the kilo" Kiev days. I was too lazy to pit them, but I just canned some in light syrup without stems but with pits still in. They were great in the winter - even with pits.
The picture at the top of your blog is cool!
can you get blueberries? I made a delicious blueberry pie last week, with probably the best crust I've ever made (thanks to Mom sending me the do-hicky that makes cutting the fat into the flour much easier!)
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