A quality, mature “grana” cheese had a grainy texture, was easy to split and grate, and had lots of tiny holes, or "vacui", which were spread evenly throughout the structure.
Its fragrance was pleasant and aromatic, its colour light yellow, and its taste had an intense and mildly spicy tang.
A short, sturdy double-bladed knife was used to cut, or rather to split the cheese, highlighting its deliciously grainy structure.
Grana cheese was divided into two categories: “maggenga” and “vernenga”.
The former was sold to cheese-retailers in October, the latter at the end of June. “Maggenga” was more popular as it was tastier, better made, fatter and softer.
“Vernenga” included the Quartiroli cheeses, which were produced in autumn while the cattle were still feeding on green forage, and the “vernenghi”, which were produced while the cattle were feeding on dry forage.

Cheeses weighing between 20 to 80 kg were sold on the market; the larger cheeses had higher values, as long as they were in perfect condition. They were cylindrical with convex sides; producers strove to maintain a certain proportion between height and diameter so that the first cheese would be little more than a third of the second.
100 litres of milk would make between 2 to 3 kilos of butter and between 6.14 to 6.80 kilos of fresh cheese, weighed 24 hours after production. Cheese left to mature for six months shrank by 10 – 20% on account of water loss and the numerous times that the crust was scraped in order to keep it clean.
The cheese was also expected to lose an additional 7 - 15% while it was being stored in the shops. In comparison with other types of cheese, "Grana" produces the most amount of waste. Normally, one third of the unripe cheeses were thrown away, one third were thrown away before merchandising, so that only the remaining one third of the cheeses were actually selected.