> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Wherever you go across the country  — from Kansas City to the Carolinas  — you’re likely to find locals bragging they’ve got the best BBQ around. And Southern Indiana is no different.

In Southern Indiana, the preference is slow-cooked, sauce-ladened pork, preferably the Boston Butt cut, according to Ray Mills, assistant manager at Karem’s Meats in New Albany.

The store itself is a neighborhood institution, open 45 years; it’s now among the dying breed of neighborhood butcher shops. It’s where customers don’t just buy meat, but they ask questions, exchange recipes and have the good fortune of dealing with knowledgeable staff, not just the kid behind the deli counter at the local supermarket. These guys know their stuff, including barbecue, and can explain to customers that cooking chuck roast, instead of brisket, will yield a more tender, better-flavored and less time-consuming meal.

One of the first things to know about barbecue is what it’s not, points out local barbecue enthusiast Dave Lobeck.

“When people think of barbecue, probably 90 percent think of dad in the back yard cooking a steak directly over a flame, over high heat  — that’s grilling, not barbecuing,” Lobeck said.

Barbecuing is a method of cooking, dating back thousands of years, involving cooking meat for long periods over low heat, almost always under a cover, often with added smoke for additional flavor.

That’s about where the agreement among experts concerning what constitutes ‘true’ barbecue ends and the endless variations of cooking styles, meat preferences and sauce vs. rubs debates begin.

To some, a grilled chicken breast topped with a dollop of tomato-based barbecue sauce is barbecue. Talk like that on the barbecue competition circuit will “lose you all street cred,” said Lobeck, who got schooled in the topic while training to become a judge for the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

One of the biggest misconceptions about barbecue, Lobeck discovered, is that it’s at its best when the meat is ‘falling off the bone.’ In reality, that means the meat has been overcooked. Instead, the meat should simply come cleanly off the bone.

Lobeck soon became an impassioned barbecue master himself, even building a traditional brick barbecue pit, capable of cooking up to 60 pounds of meat at one time, in his back yard. Preparing the pit involves cooking down the wood to coals and cooking the food indirectly over heat in the 225 degree range for anywhere from eight to 12 hours.

But Lobeck and Mills both recommend experimenting with barbecuing. For Lobeck, that’s led to a tradition of smoking salmon for Christmas and lamb for Easter, while Mills tells customers to give rubs a try, saying, “They don’t get the credit they deserve.”

And while Southern Indiana may not be nationally recognized for its barbecue, locals feel pretty strongly that they too can cook up some pretty tasty dishes. The region even has it’s own barbecue version of Louisiana chef Emeril Lagasse and his best-selling seasonings in the form of local, New York Culinary Institute trained chef Doug Needham. His Mahdeen’s rub and sauces are sold at Karem’s and several Louisville locations.

Whatever the preference and skill level, barbecuing really just requires three things, Lobeck said — time, patience and a way to monitor the cooking temperature.

He added, “Anybody can do it,” but be warned, “it can be addictive.”