The relationships of marbling level (eight levels from "Moderately Abundant" to "Practically Devoid") and cooking to cholesterol content of beef longissimus muscle steaks were studied. Only raw steaks with "Practically Devoid" marbling contained significantly less cholesterol (wet basis) than did raw steaks with any of the other seven marbling scores. However, steaks cooked to an internal temperature of 60' or 75°C showed no significant differences in cholesterol content among any of the eight marbling groups. The cholesterol content of cooked steaks was 22-48% higher than that of raw steaks when cooked to 60°C and 38-65% higher when cooked to 75°C; cooking reduced the weight of each steak, thereby increasing the cholesterol content of the steak expressed as a percentage of the cooked weight.