Bot(t) boi

An etymological curiosity. At Chez Pim there is an entry, with photo, on Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie, also known as bot boi. It appears that bot boi is regarded as archaic German, but I can't see what it might have meant. Still curious about the term bot boi, I texted Thomas the (real) German boy to see if he knew what it meant. "Potpourri", he replied instantly. Hmm. Odd. "How about something regarding food, or perhaps something phonetically similar but not the exact spelling", I tried again. "Ah, it's an antiquated expression for a thick stew, which in modern German is eintopf", he explained. Eintopf, according to Thomas, has a starch element from mashed beans, peas, potatoes, or lentils, which are cooked with chunks of meat to make a thick stew. I suppose when the Pennsylvania Dutch migrated here from Germany they imported the idea but adapted it to the more readily available ingredients, namely flour and corn. This Thomas sounds like a few men I have known: he always knows the answer. But how exactly does he get the link from Eintopf (casserole, literally 'one pot') to bot boi? Pot pie is a term I suspect is mainly American, but I may be wrong (am querying at wordorigins), meaning a doublecrust pie. This Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie is a stew with noodles made in a pot on the stove. Apparently such noodles are also called dumplings elsewhere - slippery dumplings as opposed to fluffy dumplings. (The English dumplings I know have a raising agent and are cooked on top of a stew in this way). Wikipedia: In the Pennsylva…