Zampone is a product of the Italian tradition made with a mixture of pork meat, rind, fat, salt and spices, stuffed into the skin of the front leg of the pig.

Its origin dates back to 1511, when the troops of Pope Giulio II Della Rovere besieged Mirandola (Modena). At the end of the siege the inhabitants of Mirandola were hungry and had only pigs. Not slaughtering them was a sin: it meant giving them to the enemy, now close to entering the city. The idea of one of the cooks of Pico della Mirandola was to slaughter the pigs, chop up the meat and sheath the casings made from the skin of their own limbs. This solution allowed the meats not to rot and to be preserved to be cooked later on. The cotechino developed in a similar way.

Production and consumption are typical of the winter months, particularly during the Christmas time, but it is a product that would deserve greater attention from the consumer even during the rest of the year.

Among the protected productions Zampone Modena is a PGI marked deli meat.