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They came up with fermentation because they needed a way to keep foods from spoiling. Same with salting, smoking, or dying out.

The interesting part to me is the first person who tried the fermented food or the animal meat that fell into the ocean and brined.

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It's not only about avoiding spoiling, but making some plants edible in the first place [1] or making them more digestible [2].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Preparation

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixtamalization

Another example: Olives

They were probably really, really hungry. That expands your horizons for what's edible.

They might also have just been bored.

Eh, maybe their rowdy teens, but being bored enough to eat something that may actively harm you is a luxury that I don't think a lot of early hominids had. Living off the land with primitive tools is a lot of work even when it's going well.

Not in winter. That was sitting in the cold and dark for 12 hours a day

That depends on where you live, and doesn't include many (any?) of the places in Africa where humans were evolving in the relevant time period for starting to eat fermented food.

And I bet there was plenty of work to do anyway, even in winter in places where it is cold and dark, enough that hunger is still a more likely motivator than boredom. I'd be interested to see hard facts on this, though.

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