No you don’t have to cook/heat up the salsa I never do and I’m not dead yet.
Of course I was raised on a farm ran barefoot and kissed my pet Brahman bull on the lips thusly I have a very good immune system.
That isn’t so as botulism poison is a byproduct of the bacteria and highly toxic, it is anaerobic which means it thrives in the absence of free oxygen.
The bacteria fails to multiply if the acidity is kept at or below 4.6, this means that no matter how many cows I kissed I can still die from it as easily as anybody else it is the toxin that does the dirty work.
There are many web sites that can tell you how to make salsa from tomatoes.
And quite a few right here at Tomatoville
Just follow the directions and have fun, canning should not be a scary thing with constant worry about whether or not you will get poisoned.
Keep things clean and keep plenty of bleach on hand.
Keep your hands clean and all of your utensils clean and sterile.
I can promise you that if you even half way try to keep things clean you will be much cleaner than many processing plants.
I don’t want this to sound like a lecture and I hope it doesn’t I just wanted to put some very important facts out there so folks can see them.
I was raised canning and that is all we ate, home grown beef, chickens, rabbits, ducks, fish, pork and veggies.
At about 9, I was in charge of butter and eggs at about 13, I was in charge of the pickling.
I really miss home made butter, you just cant buy the stuff.
I have spent all of my life in the kitchen and love every minute of it and love to help folks any way I can.
PS, I have never used tomato sauce or paste in my salsa, I cant stand the stuff.
Good cooking.
Worth