I've found the best thing to cook cornbread in is a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. The way I do it is melt a couple tablespoons of bacon grease in the skillet and swish it around good to coat the pan, then pour it into my batter and mix it in, then pour the batter into the hot skillet and pop it in the oven.
I'll have to try the bacon trick and the corn meal trick... sounds like good ideas.
Also, I am partial to coarse stone ground yellow corn meal. The only brand I've found in recent years is Hodgson Mill, and it isn't available in this podunk town. Does anyone know of another good brand?