Solution: Something used in a pinch - NYT Crossword

This clue sent me to my mental spice drawer, as that’s what I initially thought of as “used in a pinch.” That was wrong, but even though I had heard the term “pinch of snuff” many times, for some weird reason I’d always thought that snuff was opium. I imagined the founding fathers inhaling ample amounts of opium while they devised our nation’s blueprint, and for some reason a spittoon was involved. Not true! Snuff is just TOBACCO. In my highbrow research endeavors I uncovered a really cute fable about a “pinch of snuff,” if you feel like reading a mash-up of O. Henry and Judaica.