A Scottish kitchen tool also spelled as theeval, thevel, thevle, theivil, thieval; theavil, thaivil or even theedle this round wooden stick, smaller at one end than the other, is used to stir food cooking in a pot, whether it be a soup, stew or preserves. As Catherine Emily Callbeck Dalgairns explained in The Practice of Cookery, Adapted to the Business of Every Day Life in 1829, “a thevil is better adapted for stirring sugar or preserves with, than a silver spoon, which last is only used for skimming. That there may be no waste in taking off the scum, it is put through a fine silk-sieve, or through a hair-sieve, with a bit of muslin laid into it; the clear part will run into the vessel placed below, and may be returned to the preserving pan.”