Thick cream sauce with plump oysters spooned over slices of toast on a white plate. — Oysters à la Newburg on toast.

Oysters à la Newburg (1920)

Name: Oysters à la Newburg
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1½ cups (360 ml) whole milk; 6 tbsp all-purpose flour; 2 egg yolks; Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp); 1½ tsp salt; 1 tsp sweet paprika; 25 small oysters, shucked and drained; 4 slices white bread, toasted

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Oysters heated in a thick cream sauce with egg yolks, lemon juice and paprika: the smaller oysters à la Newburg of Mrs. Wilson’s Cook Book of 1920, a cousin of the Newburg on her New Year’s midnight menu.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Nov 2, 2026

Recipe makes: 4 servings on toast
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 15 min
Total: 40 min

Drain the shucked oysters first; once they go into the sauce they need only a few minutes, until it reads 160°F (71°C).

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Oysters à la Newburg on toast.

The story behind the recipe

Mrs. Wilson’s Cook Book of 1920 gives oysters à la Newburg twice. The short recipe, among her oyster dishes, calls for one and a half cups of thick cream sauce, the yolks of two eggs, the juice of a lemon, salt and paprika, with twenty-five oysters drained and patted dry. They go into the sauce, heat slowly to the boil and cook for five minutes, then are filled into shells and served at once. Over seventy pages later the dish heads her “Midnight Repast” for New Year’s, in a second recipe made for fifteen people, and that one has no lemon and no yolks, only whole eggs.

What is the difference between the two?

The short recipe is a cream-and-yolk sauce with lemon. The party recipe starts from a quart of the oysters’ own liquid and a quart of milk, adds onion, pimento and parsley, and turns two whole eggs into it; it is served on thick toast, not in shells. The book does not say why it gives both. We cook the small one, since it is the one with the cream sauce and the lemon.

Did Wilson have other Newburgs?

Yes: on page 171, her lobster à la Newburg is one and a half cups of milk and five tablespoons of flour, boiled for five minutes, then a beaten egg, lobster, Worcestershire sauce and lemon. Each of her Newburgs is built a little differently. The midnight menu’s other dish is the pimento sandwiches. The rest of her midnight supper is in the article on the last New Year’s Eve before Prohibition.

Making it today

Wilson’s “thick cream sauce” has no amount here. Her own rule for the sauce of “a la King and au gratin dishes” is four level tablespoons of flour to each cup of milk (page 171), so we use six tablespoons of flour to a cup and a half. The book boils the oysters with the sauce for five minutes. We stop sooner, when the edges curl and a thermometer in the sauce reads 160°F (71°C), because the yolks need to reach that heat without boiling, and the oysters need just a few minutes to cook.

One and one-half cups of thick cream sauce, Yolks of two eggs, Juice of one lemon, ...

Mary A. WilsonMrs. Wilson’s Cook Book (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1920), Oysters a la Newburg, p. 414; the menu and the recipe for fifteen, p. 485

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Ingredients

For 4 servings on toast. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 4 servings on toast.

Whole milk1 1/2 cupsAuthor measures: 360 ml.
All-purpose flour6 tbsp
Egg yolks2
Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp)
Salt1 1/2 tsp
Sweet paprika1 tsp
Small oysters, shucked and drained25
White bread, toasted4 slices

Ingredients as written here

1½ cups (360 ml) whole milk
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 egg yolks
Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp)
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp sweet paprika
25 small oysters, shucked and drained
4 slices white bread, toasted

Equipment

Saucepan
Whisk
Small bowl
Toaster or broiler

Instructions

Whisk the milk and flour together in a saucepan until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring all the time, and cook for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for 2 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt and paprika. Stir in a spoonful of the hot sauce, then stir the mixture back into the pan.
Pat the oysters dry. Add them to the sauce and heat over low heat, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes, until the edges of the oysters curl and the sauce reads 160°F (71°C) on a thermometer. Do not let it boil.
Spoon over the toast and serve at once.

Nutrition

250calories per serving

Recipe makes: 4 servings on toast
Servings: 4

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for oysters, milk, flour, egg yolks and white bread.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Keep about 1 oyster to each tablespoon of sauce; the sauce thickens as it stands.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Wilson fills the sauce into shells, and her party version for fifteen is served on toast. Our changes: the milk and flour amounts for the “thick cream sauce” (six tablespoons to a cup and a half, after her four-to-a-cup rule for à la dishes), the yolks stirred in off the heat instead of boiled with the sauce for five minutes, the shorter cooking to 160°F (71°C) so the yolks are cooked, and the toast. Buy shucked oysters from a reputable seller, keep them cold, and throw out any with an off smell. Anyone who avoids undercooked shellfish or eggs should know that the oysters here are heated only until they curl. Contains shellfish, egg, milk and wheat (gluten).

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.