Un brik de nata

[raji]

Hi,

I came across the phrase "un brik de nata" in a spanish recipe.
nata is cream but I am not sure what "brik" means.

Raji

[Jessica]

are you sure it's a Spanish word? I looked it up in the dictionary and I couldn't find the meaning...

[Rusty]

brik = carton (like what milk, cream, or half-n-half comes in)

[poli]

I think that nata is sometimes used for whipped cream (crema batida). In France brik is used to mean a kind of square cake in the shape of a brick. Perhaps the Spanish recipe is for a square cake with whipped cream.
Another word I have heard for whipped creme is chantilly.

[Rusty]

nata montada (Esp)
= crema batida (AmL)
= whipped cream

nata para montar
= crema para batir
= whipping cream

un brik de nata para montar
= a carton of whipping cream

[Planet hopper]

Brik or brick (I've seen both) has nothing to do with the shape of the cake, it's about the shape of the container.
It's a word that came into the language in the 90s when tetra bricks became popular.
Right now, carton is more frequently used, usage has laid tetra brick aside, I guess because it's a word external to spanish. The speakers chose carton.

In the 90s there was an idiom: 'being a tetra brick man/woman' which meant 'ser una persona que vale poco, de usar y tirar'

Cakes shaped like a brick are often called after the English word plum cake, which many people recognise.

[Jessica]

so then it mean carton of cream?

[Planet hopper]

Yep, a carton of cream is what it means

[Tomisimo]

Yes, and it probably implies a 1-liter carton (since for a recipe that is important).