Grana Padano 
Grana Padano is a hard, grainy cheese from Italy's Po Valley, made with semi-skimmed unpasteurized cow's milk and ripened at least nine months. It is made much like Parmesan but under looser rules, and young wheels taste milder and less crumbly.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | Italy |
| Specific Origin | Po River Valley |
| Protection | PDO (1996) |
| Milk Type | Cow's milk |
| Milk Treatment | Skimmed or unpasteurized |
| Fat Content | Semi-fat |
| Moisture Content | One-third water |
| Rind | Thin, pale yellow |
| Texture | Crumbly |
| Flavor | Nutty |
| Colors | Straw-white |
| Forms | Large wheels |
| Age | 9–16 months+ |
| Rennet Type | Calf rennet |
What is Grana Padano Cheese?
Grana Padano comes from the Po Valley in northern Italy. Monks at Chiaravalle Abbey worked out the cheese in the 12th century, and it spread across a wide production area that now covers Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Trento, parts of Emilia-Romagna and a few municipalities in South Tyrol. The name explains itself: grana for the grainy texture, padano for Val Padana. It was registered as a DOC in 1955 and as an EU PDO in 1996, and its name is protected in several countries outside the EU as well.
Cows are milked twice a day. The evening milk is skimmed of its surface cream and mixed with fresh morning milk, then moved into copper kettles and coagulated. The curd is cut into granules the size of rice grains, which is where the texture comes from, and warmed to 53 to 56 C (127 to 133 F). Lysozyme goes into the vats to stop the butyric fermentation that would swell the wheels during ripening. Cheesemaking runs year-round, so the cheese shifts with the season and the year. It takes about 14.4 kilograms (32 lb) of milk to make 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of cheese, and roughly 150 factories turn out an estimated 76,724 tons annually.
A wheel is cylindrical with flat faces and sides that are straight or slightly convex. It measures 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18 in) across, stands 15 to 18 cm (5.9 to 7.1 in) high, and weighs 24 to 40 kg (53 to 88 lb). The rind is thin and pale yellow. Wheels that pass the quality tests are fire-branded with the Grana Padano mark.
Ripening takes at least nine months, sometimes up to two years, and the stage decides the character. At 9 to 16 months the paste is still creamy and only slightly grainy. Past 16 months it turns crumblier with a sharper taste. Riserva, over 20 months, is grainy, crumbly and full-flavoured. Compared with the longer-aged Parmesan, younger Grana Padano is milder and less complex.
It takes 1.5 litres of partially skimmed milk from the production area to make 100 g of cheese. Ageing leaves the vitamins and minerals well available, supplies protein with all nine essential amino acids, and makes the cheese easy to digest. It is close to lactose-free, with less than 10 mg of galactose per 100 g.
How Does Grana Padano Cheese Compare?
The most relevant cheeses to compare Grana Padano against.
