It feels like (and this may not have been your intention) this question kindof implies an understanding that humans and chickens coexisted for a time and humans didn’t eat the chickens’ eggs until they “decided” one day to try chicken eggs and decided they liked them and would continue the practice. It seems much more likely that humans inherited the practice of eating eggs from their pre-human ancestors. As to chickens specifically, modern domesticated chickens are considered the same species as wild “red junglefowl” from which they were domesticated. Red junglefowl are native to southeast Asia, and humans first made it to there probably between 35,000 and 50,000 years ago. So, if red junglefowl qualify as “chickens”, I think the answer is highly likely that the first humans who encountered them in southeast Asia 35,000 to 50,000 years ago started eating their eggs because they weren’t that different from the eggs of other birds they were already eating and found tasty.
The chicken is unique in that it wants to keep laying eggs until it fills its nest up, where other birds will just lay a set number. This means if you take the egg every day, you suddenly have an egg machine on your hands. Eggs being very nutritious, this is very advantageous. This made it one of the earlier domesticated animals we have evidence for.
If memory serves anyway.
Eggs don’t make me wonder. What makes me wonder are edible flowers like artichokes.
Fermented foods are where I get confused. Who thought it was a good idea to eat cabbage that they left in a sealed pot for a few months.
I’m assuming someone got desperate.
Foods that are poisonous if not cooked also… Various types of beans, Cassava, etc.
It’s really easy to imagine it happening in a time before refrigeration.
Fermentation can happen quite fast, especially in warmer climates. My wife ferments mustard greens (similar to sauerkraut) for only a day or two depending on the temperature. It’s easy to imagine someone concluding “if a day tastes this good, I wonder what 5 days tastes like?”. And so on until they eventually recognize the preservative nature of fermenting.
Because it’s edible food. And people will eat anything rather than starve.