tryptophan

Tryptophan in this library always arrives as part of a complete protein: cocoa's own protein carries it into the egg-free brownies, and lamb's protein carries it into both the jameed-free mansaf, where a long pressure braise gives up the meat's full spread of amino acids, and the lamb guanciale, where curing and time concentrate what was already there. It is one of the essential amino acids, meaning the body cannot make it and has to get it from food like this.

It is the building block the body turns into serotonin, and every recipe that traces it says so, but none overstates the amount: the egg-free brownies note is explicit that the few milligrams in one brownie are far too little to lift your mood, whatever the folklore says. In this library tryptophan is traced in three recipes, always from cocoa or lamb, and always with that same honest caveat about dose.