An apparatus, configured and adapted for scalding slaughtered poultry, includes a scalding tank, which is open at the top, for receiving and for holding a liquid scalding medium, and a transport means, arranged above the scalding tank, for transporting the poultry in a hanging manner within the scalding tank along a scalding channel formed of a plurality of scalding channel sections from an input region to an output region. There is formed beneath the scalding channel a receiving compartment for scalding medium. There is arranged inside the receiving compartment at least one pump device as a turbulence-generating body for forming a pressure chamber which acts along the entire scalding channel. A corresponding method is also provided.