Traditional gesso [edit].  Gesso , also known glue gesso or Italian gesso is a traditional mix of an animal glue binder (usually rabbit-skin glue), chalk, and white pigment, used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels as an absorbent primer coat substrate for painting.esso (. [ËdÊÉsso] ;  chalk , from the Latin: gypsum, from Greek: Î³ÏÏÎ¿Ï) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these.
In Europe, too, chocolate was always served together with vanilla for more than a century after it arrived from America. Then people began to use sugar instead of vanilla to sweeten chocolate, and vanilla became a flavoring on its own. All the vanilla in the world was grown in Mexico until 1836, when scientists found ways of growing it in other lands. Today, most of the worldâs vanilla comes from Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean.
Vanilla is a sacred and very important part of their culture and their lives. Vanilla first left Mexico in the early 1500s on ships bound for Spain. It was originally believed only to have value as a perfume. It wasnât until Cortes arrived in 1519 that they discovered that it was also used as a flavor.Until the late 19th century, Mexico had the monopoly on growing vanilla, but now Madagascar grows the majority of the worldâs crop.Additional countries that grow vanilla include Costa Rica, Guatemala, Uganda, Kenya, China, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and other Pacific Islands.t wasnât until Cortes arrived in 1519 that they discovered that it was also used as a flavor. Until the late 19th century, Mexico had the monopoly on growing vanilla, but now Madagascar grows the majority of the worldâs crop.