whats the best way to de-stone an olive?

Answer 1

You can use a "cherry pitter" (it's shaped sort of like a pair of scissors, but has a holder cup at one end with a hole in it, and a plunger at the other end to push out the stone or pit when the jaws are closed together).

But the easiest way without one of those is just to bang the flat side of a chef's knife (or anything else that's flat and wide) down onto the olive with your hand, hard enough to break the olive's skin... that will expose the pit and then it can be easily removed by hand.
You can even do a bunch of olives at one time that way if you have something large enough to press or bang on them with... and rotating it a bit may free them even more. (You'll still need to pick up or pick out all the pits though and toss them.)

If you want to leave the olive's skin perfectly intact though, the cherry pitter would be best, I guess... if you wanted to put in a nut or cheese or something as an hors d'oevre, e.g.


Diane B.

Answer 2

I haven't tried this with olives, but it works well with cherries.

I use a McDonald's drinking straw. I'd punch it in at the top end of the olive, get the tip of the stone inside the straw, and continue pushing it out the bottom.

Answer 3

Pound it with a meat tenderizer (or hammer) and peel the pit out of the olive. It works great everytime and makes quick work of it.

Answer 4

get an olive destoner...?