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I had a 3lb roast on a bed of baby potatoes (smaller than a ping-pong ball but larger than a grape) and onions at 375F for almost 3 hours. The roast came out great (cooked to 150F internally), but the potatoes are still raw in the middle. Shouldn't they have cooked by then? And what can I do in the future to prevent this?

As per comments: There was also a pizza stone in the oven. Could that have played a factor? It was preheated with the oven, as suggested in Storing Pizza Stone in Oven. The oven was preheated about an hour (my oven doesn't beep, just has a change in light color, so sometimes we forget we were preheating and wander off).

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Yamikuronue
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    If they were under the roast, it would appear to have insulated them from most of the heat of the oven. Still admittedly surprising. – Ecnerwal Mar 17 '15 at 22:47
  • I'm surprised your roast wasn't *very* overdone after 3 hours of 375... Did it start frozen? Have you checked your oven temperature? – derobert Mar 17 '15 at 22:58
  • @derobert It wasn't frozen. My husband did the cooking, he's relayed all this info to me, but I verified yet again and he said it's the right time and temp – Yamikuronue Mar 17 '15 at 22:59
  • aha, but I did get the size wrong. Edited – Yamikuronue Mar 17 '15 at 23:00
  • @Yamikuronue is this a pot roast, i.e., a braise? – derobert Mar 17 '15 at 23:00
  • He put it on the bed of potatoes and onions and poured some wine and vinegar over top, but it wasn't like, braised per se. In the oven, not a crockpot – Yamikuronue Mar 17 '15 at 23:02
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    @Yamikuronue I'm at a loss then as to how your roast isn't overcooked. I mean, normally it'd be well under half an hour per pound, especially at that temperature. At least for a roast of a tender cut (a braise of a tough cut would of course be longer). All I can think of is it wasn't really 375, or it wasn't really ~3h. I'd verify the oven temperature with an oven thermometer... – derobert Mar 17 '15 at 23:10
  • hmm, that's a good point. He brought it to 150 internal temp (was a beef roast), maybe our oven is running low. – Yamikuronue Mar 17 '15 at 23:11
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    @Yamikuronue BTW: In order for that setup to work, the potatoes have to be soaking up some nice heat from the bottom of the pan—they need to get much hotter than the meat (you're probably going for [at least 200°F, maybe even 210](http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/29107/how-do-you-know-when-a-baked-potato-is-done), depending on the texture you want). So maybe the roaster needed to be lower in the oven, too. – derobert Mar 17 '15 at 23:18
  • @derobert Could the pizza stone he left in the oven have been to blame? – Yamikuronue Mar 17 '15 at 23:19
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    @Yamikuronue Yeah, that could definitely have blocked heat from getting to the bottom of the pan. Especially if it was close to the pan (or the pan was sitting on it). – derobert Mar 17 '15 at 23:21
  • I rolled in some of the comments and more info into the question – Yamikuronue Mar 19 '15 at 15:34

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Put the roast on the bottom and the potatoes around the edges. Cover everything with red wine (or whatever fluid you are using)

Escoce
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  • This doesn't even begin to start to initiate creation of an answer to the question. – James McLeod Mar 18 '15 at 17:38
  • The reason I answered thusly is because that is how I make a roast, and I don't have raw potato issues. My roast is also a 3 he recipe so I thought it appropriate – Escoce Mar 18 '15 at 18:23
  • The pizza stone would definitely impede heat transfer – Escoce Mar 18 '15 at 18:24
  • Doesn't this answer the "what can I do in the future to prevent this?" part of the question? But yes, it doesn't really address the "what went wrong this time" part. – Cascabel Mar 18 '15 at 18:25
  • And if the pizza stone is the fundamental problem, this won't prevent the problem. – James McLeod Mar 18 '15 at 22:55
  • Well, heat transfered in from the side would cook the potatoes were on the sides and the meat would be less cooked, which _may_ be desireable depending on what the chef wants to accomplish. – Escoce Mar 19 '15 at 13:49
  • Two things. First, @Escoce, if you would please edit your answer to say that this can prevent a future issue it would clearly show that it is related to the 2nd part of the question. Second, please see this question, http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/4012/storing-pizza-stone-in-oven. If the oven was preheated with the pizza stone already inside, the stone should not have been part of the problem. – Cindy Mar 19 '15 at 14:23