SUMMARY: The fat content of beef semitendinosus muscle, raw and cooked at two oven temperatures, with and without the external fat cover, has been determined. Each muscle was divided into two, an anterior and a posterior roast. The external fat cover was removed from half of the total number of roasts, and all roasts were then cooked to an internal temperature of 58°C at an oven temperature of either 163° or 218°C. Two types of samples were analyzed for their moisture and fat content. These were a separable lean sample and a total sample. The total sample was composed of both the separable lean and the external fat cover. The moisture content of the lean samples was not affected by the oven temperature, the external fat cover or the end of the muscle used. The total samples had moisture contents that reflected the amount of crude fat present. The yield of crude fat from raw or cooked meat was not significantly altered by the use of a polar solvent in place of a nonpolar one. Both of the fat determination methods extracted significantly more fat from the cooked lean samples than from the comparable raw ones. The lean samples from meat roasted at 163°C contained significantly more extractable fat than the samples roasted at 218°C. The presence or absence of the external fat cover did not affect the amount of fat extracted from the cooked lean.