Castelli wrote a comprehensive account of the entire process that contemporary producers in Lombardy used to make these cheeses which, at that time, were collectively known as “grana”. He detailed the standards of the animal shelters, the dairy, the kitchen and its utensils, the painstaking process behind a quality product, and the cheese-maker’s "art and skill".

The results of this work were more than gratifying, and "grana" producers felt obliged to maintain the excellent reputation their cheese had earned both in Italy and across Europe.

Castelli describes the same milk-processing techniques that had been used since its discovery, which confirms that “grana” cheese had been made in the same way for centuries.
Cattle rearing, however, had changed enormously from traditional methods, as the author mentions that 90 - 100 dairy cows provided the perfect quantity of milk to produce 70 pounds of cheese.
Such were the demands of the 18th century market.