IGP Cotechino and Zampone are two widely consumed second courses of the Modena traditional cuisine, mainly during Christmas festivities. Pork trotters are stuffed with finely-minced pork meat. They are usually sided by lentils. The zampone was born in Mirandola where, according to the legend, during the terrible siege of Pope Giulio II in 1510-11, in order to withstand hardships and not to leave animals so laboriously fattened for the enemy, a cook of the Pio family had the idea of mincing pork meat and stuffing it into trotters. The history of cured meat production is very old. As far back as Celts and Romans there was the habit of preserving meat in salt. This method was used to preserve the product during military campaigns.