PECORINO ROMANO is a hard, cooked cheese, produced with fresh whole sheep's milk exclusively from producers in the area, potentially inoculated with natural cultures of native milk ferments from the production area and curdled with lamb rennet exclusively sourced from animals reared in the same production area.
It has a thin, light ivory or natural straw colour rind and is sometimes covered with a special protective layer for food with a neutral or black colour.
The cheese is compact and its colour can vary from white to a more or less intense straw yellow according to the production technique.
The cheese tastes aromatic, slightly spicy and savoury as a table cheese and intensely spicy as a cheese for grating.
The shapes are cylindrical with flat sides, with a height between 25 and 40 cm, while the diameter is between the 25 and 35 cm. The weight of the shapes can vary between 20 and 35 kg; they carry an embossed logo indicating their origin on the side (a diamond with rounded corners containing a stylised sheep's head) with Pecorino Romano lettering.
Pecorino Romano can be sold after being matured for a minimum of 5 months as a table cheese and 8 months as a cheese for grating.