Le Clafoutis

You never know if people you know are clafoutis purists - i.e. do they take life's bowl of cherries pits and all and insist that everyone else does too - or are they the kind to do what they can to enable quick painless gobbling activities in their entourage, thus removing the pits before putting the cherries in?

You'd be surprised at the way a normally mild mannered, friendly and generally laid back person can turn into a rabid dog and go for your throat should you even mention removing pits for a clafoutis. This is one of those pressure points in the French human psyche that are so completely unpredictable and random. My warning to you is to tread lightly, my friend.

I know now never to even breach the subject, for example, with my hairdresser when he is holding scissors, lest he purse his lips and then lapse into a daydream before he reasserts his opinion that the pits must be left in the fruit. No mind that I agree with him completely, except for the fact that I always add the "to each his own" clause. Just the mention of this clause and something begins churning in his mind and unpleasant memories are triggered about the errant clafoutis cook that fell to the wayside in his childhood and removed the pits. It's enough to start him tersely clipping away, with such vehement conviction that I must change the subject entirely or end up with a bad haircut.

Me I am a pits in the cherry kind of gal - but try very hard not to impose my opinion on others. In my opinion, pits are part of the package, integral to the full experience of the clafoutis. I have heard that the juice runs into the custard and clouds it up if you break the cherries open to remove the pits, but I have also heard that if you freeze pitted cherries before putting them in, then you can have the best of both worlds with a nice clean looking custard base.

What's wrong with a few pits? What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. You don't eat them, anyway, you spit them out. I suppose the people who prefer their clafoutis with the pits removed would also be the kind to dislike eating tacos or long noodles or remove the bones from their chicken. But it's good! You let the custard melt on your tongue and rub the fruits against the roof of your mouth, and the whole fishing for the pits sets things in motion for complete and perfect enjoyment of this classic French dessert. On the other hand, you're free to do it however you like. I won't judge you.