Whether in jams and pastries, as juice or syrup: cornel cherries taste delicious. But how can the cherry-like wild fruits be pitted? Is that possible? We answer these important questions in our guide, which also includes practical step-by-step instructions.

Cornelian cherries can be pitted with a cherry pitter

Destoning is possible, but…

In principle, you can pit cornel cherries - with a cherry pitter. However, in this case you have to reckon with an extremely fiddly and therefore extremely tedious procedure that costs you a lot of time, strength and nerves. Since there are more practical alternatives, we do not recommend pitting the fruit.

Exception: With very ripe cornelian cherries, it is often sufficient to take them between your fingers and press them carefully - the pit then usually slips out.

Note: The stone of a cornel is large and elongated - similar to that of sweet and sour cherries, although botanically cornus do not belong to the cherry family, but to the dogwood family.

Better to seven cornel cherries…

In order to get rid of the stones from the cornelian cherries as easily as possible, i.e. with little effort, it is best to sieve the wild fruits instead of pitting them. This procedure is also recommended because in most cases cornelian cherries are eaten processed anyway and it is therefore not a problem if they fall apart.

Step by step to the goal…

Our practical step-by-step instructions briefly and concisely explain how to cleanly separate the pith of your cornelian cherries from the pits without having to make an extreme effort:

  1. Place the cornel cherries in a saucepan.
  2. Fill the pot with a little water so that the cornelian cherries are just covered.
  3. Turn on the stove and heat the water until it boils.
  4. Cook the fruit for about three to five minutes - no longer so as not to destroy the good stuff. It's just a matter of softening the cornel cherries a bit.
  5. Turn off the stove and remove the pot from the stove.
  6. Drain the cornelian cherries in a colander.
  7. Now wait a few more minutes until the fruit has cooled and can be handled without problems.
  8. Then push the fruit pulp through the sieve. In this way you separate the pith and cores cleanly from each other.

Preparation tip: Cornelian cherries taste quite sour on their own. To soften this rather dominant note, we recommend combining the wild fruits with sweet apples or pears.

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