This is the type of recipe that is a true treasure! Thanks for sharing this one. Can't wait to try it.

As a railroad man, I can appreciate this recipe on multiple levels. I have made it countless times and it can NOT be made "wrong". I prefer a low sodium approach with 2 cans of 'no salt added' whole tomatoes, no added table salt and ground turkey instead of beef. With only onion, some garlic and the 3 tbsp. of chili powder, it is bursting with flavor. It is a national treasure.

This is our family chili recipe passed down from my Grandpa Brittle. My Uncle Bud was Dispatcher for Union Pacific from as far back as I can remember. He gave this recipe out twice that I know of a few years before his death and possibly more over the years prior. Being on LA Union Pacific stationary would mean this recipe was given out in the early to mid 60's, not the 20's or 30's as stated. Although Bud did have old company stationary in his desk. I always use more garlic too! :)

Tall tales! During the 20s and 30's the (then proposed and finally completed) dam was known as Boulder Dam. When Secretary Wilbur spoke at the ceremony starting the building of the railway between Las Vegas and the dam site on September 17, 1930, he named the dam "Hoover Dam". This began a public naming battle which was finally resolved in 1947 when congress declared the dam be to "Hoover Dam".

I was amazed to see this recipe on line. My grandfather had a boarding house somewhere in Kansas sometime in the mid 1920s, he had a Mexican man cooking for him. Grandpa liked his chili so much that he asked him for the recipe. The man sold it to him for fifty dollars with the promise that the recipe would not leave the family in his lifetime, grandpa passed in 1965. The scrap of paper the recipe was written on was difficult to read the print was so faded but I pulled up a good magnifier and tried to read the copy of the original. I can't be sure but the hand writing on the UP paper does resemble my brother's hand writing as near as I could tell, and he could have shared that recipe with a coworker as early as 1966. My brother was a chief dispatcher for the U P until the early 90s.

I have renamed the chili Grandpa O.W's heart attack chili because of the fat content, it is very, very good, and the family has loved this chili for now four generations and going to the fifth.

Elaine Sullivan
Vancouver Washington.

My dad retired from Union Pacific in the early 2000's after 16 years with them (he worked for Missouri Pacific for 16 years before that, when MoPac merged with UP). Although he passed away in Feb of '12, he would have loved this recipe! Lucky for me, I found this just in time, as I planned on making chili tomorrow! Gonna try this, I'm sure it will be a huge hit!! Thanks so much for sharing!

Added 1 tbsp. of oregano, 2 cans of pinto bean and dashes of liquid smoke to the meat. Fantastic recipe!

Easy and very good, but I just used one pound of 80/20 ground beef and no suet.

That's what I was thinking!

Honestly, the Best recipes on here are the ones that have stories. The story of this recipe, the photo of the stationery and the discussions by commenters are great.

STILL loving & using this recipe. Lots of garlic - lots of onion - pinto beans - stewed tomatoes. This recipe simply "cannot" be beat.

For one thing, the head of the paper that your Grandmother wrote on stated it was from The Los Angeles Limited not Union Pacific.

Bottom right hand corner it says "UNION PACIFIC". You can thank me later!