Pitting olives

[B Edulis]

Anybody know a better way to pit olives than trimming the pit with a paring knife? The pre-pitted ones never seem to taste as good.

[Terrie]

I use a cherry pitter, when I can (some olives have pits that are too big, but most fit fine).  Works great!

[Andy Lynes]

If you don't need to keep the olive whole,  you can just put it on a board or work surface and press the end of the olive with your thumb and the pit will just pop out, but the olive will be split. This is fine for when you need to chop then up or are going to blitz them for tapenade.  

[Liza]

Let me second Terrie - I bought a ŭ olive stoner / cherry pitter at Dean and Deluca and have found it masterful in both objectives. I like it better than the knife technique because it allows you to retain the shape of the cherry or olive, whilst you de-stone.

B, you can always borrow from me!

[B Edulis]

Cherry-pitter it is! Thanks guys!

[hedgehog]

cherry pitters are fine for most olives. Pressing down on soft nicoise works well. The big problem is to pit a cracked olive that seems glued to the flesh. I place them in a single layer on a double thickness of kitchen toweling. THen I hit each one with a heavy pestle and remove the pit. (the toweling helps cushion the blow).

[Rover]

My most efficient method for pitting olives is to smack them firmly with a wooden meat mallet or rolling pin, this works beautifully for preparations like tapenade. It's easy to pick out and discard the pits.

[Ron Johnson]

Place olive on board. Place widest part of your largest chef's knife flat side down on olive, whack with base of your palm like smashing a clove of garlic. Once you get into a rhythm, you can do a lot this way pretty quickly.