Zampone and Cotechino Modena are two of the most ancient products of Italian cured meats.
According to a legend, they first appeared in winter 1511 in Mirandola, when the city was placed under siege by the troops of Pope Julius II, Giuliano della Rovere.
On that occasion, the people of Mirandolina are supposed to have been the first to creatively start stuffing pork meat into the rind or to use the rind as an ingredient for a cured meat produced for cooking, thus creating cotechino, and later using the rind to stuff the legs, with the production of zampone.
Cotechino and zampone, magical gastronomic delicacies that have remained unchanged for centuries, were born of a survival instict.
The modern age witnessed extensive distribution of these two products on the markets as a result of the conversion of the first two sausage workshops, Frigeri and Bellentani, into a semi-industrial structure after economy underwent the transformation from a farming system based on craftsmanship to an industrial system in which intensive breeding prevailed.
These products are closely related to the area in which they are produced.
The human factor is essential, namely the existence of highly specialized craftsmen, who have handed down the traditional productive techniques and skills in the course of time.
