• 19.048 and handed him the tobacco-jar.

Is it a food?  It is certainly a consumable, and in Hobbit culture, a comfort.  Note that Tolkien calls the herb “tobacco” in The Hobbit – a word which entered English in 1577.  In The Lord of the Rings, he calls it “pipeweed”, a compound word made at least as early as the 1500s from two words which we inherit directly from Old English.

Hyphenated in its sub-entry in OED under “tobacco”

“tobacco, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 1 July 2015.

“pipe, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 1 Juy 2015.

“weed, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 1 Juy 2015.