American Geese have changed: Gone are the fatty, greasy, hard-to-digest honkers of yesteryear. Geese still have prickly personalities, but they are being bred friendlier - skinnier, meatier, but no less flavorful.

1 . Preheat oven to 450°. Wash, drain, and dry goose with paper towels, then rub, inside and out, with salt and pepper.

2. For stuffing, melt 2 tbsp. butter in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onions and garlic until soft, about 15 minutes. Add celery and cook 5 minutes more, then transfer to a bowl. Melt remaining 1 tbsp. butter in the same pan, add mushrooms and thyme, and cook 7-8 minutes more. Combine mushrooms with onion mixture, then add chestnuts, bread crumbs, egg, and stock, and mix well. Set stuffing aside.

3. For sauce, put neck, giblets, celery, garlic, onions, parsley, peppercorns, and 6 cups water in a large saucepan. Bring to boll over medium heat, reduce heat to low, skim off foam, and simmer for 2 hours. Strain, reserving stock and giblets. Discard remaining solids. Peel and finely chop giblets and set aside.

4. While stock cooks, loosely pack body and neck cavity of goose with stuffing. Tie legs closed with kitchen string. Prick legs and thighs with a fork. Roast on a rack in a roasting pan for 1/2 hour. Lower heat to 325° and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours more or until thigh juices run clear. Transfer goose to a platter and allow to rest for 15 minutes, then remove stuffing and carve.

5. While goose rests, put roasting pan with drippings on top of stove (use 2 burners if necessary) over medium heat. Skim and discard fat from juices. Add port and deglaze, scraping brown bits ftom bottom of pan. Add giblets and stock and reduce liquid by half, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve sauce with goose and stuffing.

Chestnut Knowledge Low in fat but high in sugar, chestnuts were once a staple of American cooking - roasted, boiled, steamed, grilled, mashed, even made into flour. Then, early in this century, a blight introduced by Chinese chestnut trees planted on Long Island all but wiped out American chestnut orchards. These days, most of the chestnuts consumed in this country are imported and canned in brine or in syrup. (Italian chestnuts, good for stuffings, often come dried and need soaking and boiling like dried beans or peas.) To peel fresh chestnuts, score them crosswise on the flat side, then boll them for 4 to 5 minutes. Pull back the outer and inner skins while the chestnuts are still warm. If they still resist, boil them again, and try it once more.