The formation of quasicrystals by ball milling as well as by rapid quenching in the systems AlMnCe and AlMnFe was investigated. Melt spinning resulted in a nanoscale mixed structure of up to 60 vol.% quasicrystalline particles embedded in a fcc Al-matrix revealing a strong influence of the alloy composition on the solidification behaviour. Milling leads to the formation of an amorphous phase, however, there was no significant effect for Ce addition on phase formation. While the use of process-control agent or different milling atmospheres mainly affects the powder morphology, the milling intensity and, hence, the temperature during milling was found to be the most important parameter concerning phase evolution. The nature of observed metastable phase transitions was clarified by DSC measurements combined with x-ray diffraction.