A Capsule History
of Chili By Al Timins
Lifetime Chilihead,
International Chili Society

The word “Chili” even by itself is magic. It starts people to salivating. It’s also a hotbed of controversy. First off we should get the straight that “Chili” is the pepper and “Chili” is the food. Even that fact gets twisted around depending on who’s doing the talking. San Antonio, Texas is pretty well considered the area where it all got started. The stories of where chili came from are almost as numerous as chili recipes – but not quite. It is most generally agreed that chili really got its start through the old chuck wagon cooks who followed cowboys to feed them while they drove cattle to market or were out working the range – too far out from the ranch house to run in for supper. These range cooks learned from the Mexicans that if you cover meat with chili peppers it would last longer. With the chili permeating the meat, even if it was turning bad, it still tasted good. The cooks evidently fooled around with this phenomenon and eventually we had Texas chili which quickly gained favor around the United States. It was in 1967 when Carroll Shelby Invited me to participate in the first original championship chili cook off between H. Allen Smith and Wick Fowler in the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas. There was to be just one chili cookoff but we had such a good time that our chief judge, Dave Witts, claimed his taste buds were “ruint” and as a result no winner was chosen. He declared a moratorium for one year. That’s all it took. Chili cookoffs have proliferated every year since; first throughout Texas, then California and now the World. Right about here I should remind you that chili is not a Mexican food, although their chile peppers contributed to its development. I helped get the cookoffs in Mexico started a Ajijic, Lake Chapala; Hussong’s chili cookoffs in Ensenada and the big one in Melbourne, Australia. As a result, I now lay claim to the title of World Chili Ambassador. Wow the newest thing in chili is the “HOTSICLE” OR Chili-OnA-Stic™. My extensive chili background and experience has led me to endorse this product from its conception. In my humble estimation, this product is destined to out-perform hot dogs and hamburgers. The potential is mind-boggling.

I leave you with the Chili Prayer as recited by Matthew “Bones” Hooks, one of the most beloved of the pioneer Black Range cooks from the 1800”s:

“Lord, God, You know us old cowhands is forgetful. Sometimes I can’t even recollect what happened yestiddy. We is forgitful. We Just know daylight and dark, summer, fall, winter, and spring. But I sure hope we don’t never forgit to thank You before we is about to eat a mess of good chili.

“We don’t know why, in You have been so dogone good to us. The heathen Chinee don’t have on chili, ever. The frenchmens is left out. The Rooshians don’t know no more about chili than a hog does about a side saddle. Even the Meskins don’t get a good whiff of it unless they stay around here.

“Chili eaters is some of Your chosen people. We don’t know why You so doggone good to us. But, Lord, God, don’t ever think we ain’t grateful for this chili we’s about to eat. Amen.”

How Al Timins
Got Started in the
"Chili" Business

By Chili Head Al Timins

As I awoke one Sunday morning on April 1, 1976, a voice from above called out “…Al T…, why don’t you quit the drudgery of cooking and decorating and take up a new quest in life, a quest for something mankind needs, a good bowl of chili.

I knew this was way too big of a job for one person, so I raced to the phone and called Bud Bellamy, a retired train engineer on his Harley bike phone. Bud was on Commerce Avenue, tracking a sewer for the Elks. I then called Don Axvig, my other good friend, who works for the brewery and who would surely be taking his morning siesta under the brewery billboard at the corner of Ramsdell and Foothill Blvd. Both men rushed over to discuss the project further.

Bud, with an I.Q. of 170 (inside statement) said, “That if God made the whole world in seven days, we should be able to make a good bowl of chili in one.” After much thought and discussion, it hit me like a bolt of lightning. A friend of mine, Buckaroo, a well known barkeeper, who owns a portable toilet business in some unknown town, said his father obtained a chili recipe in 1873 (which makes him very old) from a band of renegade Paiute Indian Nuns An Innkeeper, Jeanne Fairbrother. With this in mind, we jumped into my homemade tricycle with a passenger seat, and headed for the unknown town. On arrival, we found Mr. Won’t Give His Name (Buckaroo’s dad) working for Buckarroo, cleaning out a portable toilet. We told him of our reason for being there and suggested we all go out to lunch and discuss the recipe provided he sit “down wind” from us. After much discussion, we informed Mr. Won’t Give His Name, that by giving us his great recipe, he would also be making a great contribution to mankind. He finally gave in and jotted down the recipe on a crumpled, used napkin.

We finished our lunch and jumped onto my tricycle and headed back to Tujunga with the recipe in hand. Leaving in such a haste, I forgot to remind Bud to go to the outhouse, as he had two beers for lunch, so we had to stop at one of Buckaroo’s portable toilets in Sunland…(I think it was one they hadn’t cleaned in over four months). But we soon got back on the road when Bud mentioned that he had friends that had a start up shop in the back of the American Legion under the shade trees who could probably help us with our cast iron pig rendering pot. Bud introduced his friend as Mr. Esko and who knows (not of the same as either parents), Past Exalted Ruler of Elkdon, who then sold us a fifty five gallon odoraged beer drum to make the Chili in, and one rowing oar from Angela and Scott Wheeler door raft to stir it with. Once home, I sent my two daughters, K.K. (Kim) and Kelly to buy supplies while the boys and I were fast at work setting up the equipment.

Some time later, my daughters arrived from home with the supplies we sent them for (you have no idea how hard it is to find fresh Coyote on the 210 Freeway at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon) so we settled for fresh Arizona Mountain Lion donated by Kathy Anthony and Bernie Zeidman. We mixed all the ingredients together and started cooking our chili. I told K.K. to call all of our friends from near and far (for a total of four people) to come by and try our chili.

Later that evening, we sat around the table, full to the brim with this wonderful "Heart Burn" invented chili and proud of our success. Bud (remember the one with the I.Q. of 170), turned to me and said “and we did it all in only 10 hours.”

We tried to come up with a newly founded invention name. Bud, with his computer mind said instantly, “Remember when we had lunch, we asked the man to sit “down wind” from us.” We voted. It was the first, second, and third unanimous “Down Wind Chili” and is now in the guts of thousands. Down Wind Chili is healthy and we are apt to put many M.D.’s into bankruptcy.

This team invented Chili-on-a-stick, U.S. Trademark Reg. No. 2 594661.

*P.S. We need help to keep it on an edible Stick. Chili Heads, Al T., Don Axe, Budski