I want to tell everyone this exceptional tip about reducing saturated fat in their red meats, but first there are a few questions that need to be answered:

1. Which fats are better for you?
2. How much fat is in red meat and is it all saturated fat?
3. If you trim all the fat off the steak, does it still have fat? YES!

To answer this there is this quote from Science Magazine 3/01:

To understand where this complexity can lead in a simple example, consider a steak--to be precise, a porterhouse, select cut, with a half-centimeter layer of fat, the nutritional constituents of which can be found in the Nutrient Database for Standard Reference at the USDA Web site. After broiling, this porterhouse reduces to a serving of almost equal parts fat and protein. Fifty-one percent of the fat is monounsaturated, of which virtually all (90%) is oleic acid, the same healthy fat that's in olive oil. Saturated fat constitutes 45% of the total fat, but a third of that is stearic acid, which is, at the very least, harmless. The remaining 4% of the fat is polyunsaturated, which also improves cholesterol levels. In sum, well over half--and perhaps as much as 70%--of the fat content of a porterhouse will improve cholesterol levels compared to what they would be if bread, potatoes, or pasta were consumed instead. The remaining 30% will raise LDL but will also raise HDL. All of this suggests that eating a porterhouse steak rather than carbohydrates might actually improve heart disease risk, although no nutritional authority who hasn't written a high-fat diet book will say this publicly.

CONCLUSION: A porterhouse steak is 50% protein and 50% fat.

WHICH FATS ARE BEST?

1. If you break down to saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat it would be:
1. Monounsaturated fat
2. Polyunsaturated fat
3. Saturated fat

METHOD TO TAKE SATURATED FAT OUT OF RED MEAT:

This is taken from the book Protein Power by Eades, p. 352:

"Trim all the visible fat from the steak, then place it in a large resealable plastic bag along with a mixture of 1 cup of red wine and 1 cup of olive oil or light sesame oil ... Allow meat to marinate in the mixture in the refrigerator for a full 24 hours, flipping the bag and contents over a couple of times. Take the steak out, drain it for an hour or so, discard the marinade, rub the beef with some pepper or other spices to your taste, then grill it. You won't believe the taste. The wine acts as a solvent to leach out a fair amount of the saturated fat in the steak, which is replaced in part by the monounsaturated fat in the olive oil or other oil you use. These oils permeate the steak, giving it a juicy, succulent taste that you have to experience to believe--and make it more healthful to boot. You can use this technique with roasts as well."

an easier way to take saturated fat out of red meat: buy free-range, grass-fed meat. There is very little in there, loads of EFAs, extra vitamins, and you don't have to eat the "bonus" of hormones, antibiotics, or stress chemicals that from the cow's last few days of life.

See www.eatwild.com 's excellent scientific references more more info.

See http://www.stumptuous.com/fat.html for a more thorough explanation of dietary fat

I have read that cooking olive oil is BAD. Does that hold true for the 'good' fat that is in the cow?

VERY generally speaking, raising fats to the smoke point (where they literally start to burn, carbonize and therefore 'smoke') is "bad". Still GENERALLY speaking, you get trans fats and broken down molecule chains this way.

So be careful with the barbeque, I guess!