Dad's Soup

When I make this I start it in the morning and keep in on for hours on a very low heat, my dad says this is the best way to do it as it makes the meat just melt in your mouth and gets the flavour just right. My mum makes this quickly by boiling 3 pints of stock and adding everything to it for an hour, I prefer my dads way. Take a large saucepan and melt the butter in it, I don't measure the butter I just go with what looks right for the amount of onion. Add the onion and soften but don't brown it. Remove the onion from the pan. Add the steak to the pan and brown all over, now add a pint of beef stock to the pan and set on a low heat, leave it to cook for 1 hour. Check on it to make sure the pan isn't going dry. Add the onion back to the pan with the steak add another pint of stock to the pan and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add sausage to the pan, and another 1/2 pint of stock, leave to simmer for an hour. After an hour check on your soup, it should have a 'sheen' to it from the butter, if you want you can add another 1/2 pint of stock to the pan and let it simmer for another 40 minutes or leave it as it is. We normally have this with big chunks of crusty bread to soak up the stock/soup.