If you — like me — are catatonic over the high price of smoked fish in Manhattan, you need to know about Acme Fish’s Fridays.

Zabar’s website offers hand-sliced Nova salmon for $32 – $64 a pound. On Friday’s from 8 am to 1 pm, you can buy the same smoked salmon, pre-sliced for $9 a pound. That’s not a typo! Zabar’s whole whitefish is $64, at Acme a 2-pound whole one is $16 ($8 a pound).

Acme probably supplies the smoked fish to most places you shop. Every Friday morning, they open their factory located at 30 Gem Street, just off North 15th N Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and sell directly to consumers at wholesale prices. In addition to many types of smoked fish — some pre-packaged others not — they offer jars of pickled herring, various fish salads and other Acme Smoked Fish, Blue Hill Bay, and Ruby Bay products.

If you buy an entire fish, either serve it whole or simply turn the flesh of that into smoked fish salad (generally over $20 pound) and serve it attractively within the deboned fish.

Seriously it is simple.

Carefully remove the main carcass then feel along the skin for the small bones you might have missed and remove them. Don’t fret — even the best de-boners occasionally miss one or two small ones. With your hands, crumble the flesh of the smoked fish into a bowl and mix with a soupçon of mayo — only enough to gently hold it together. That’s it.

I like stuff the whole whitefish with that salad and use for the center of my platter surrounded by pieces of the smoked salmon and some sliced tomatoes, red onion, red peppers, etc.

To get to Acme, take the L train (while it’s still running) to Bedford Street; it’s about a 15-minute walk to the factory from the station. Bring cash.

Acme Fish
Greenpoint
30 Gem Street
Brookyn, NY